Sat, 06/04/2011 - 13:31

Delaware: Robertson has contender in Forgotten Knot

Mac Robertson has long been king of the hill during summers at Canterbury Park in Minnesota, winning six consecutive trainer titles between 2005 and 2010. When he brought a string of horses to Delaware Park for the first time last season, however, Robertson didn’t make much of an impact.

Sat, 06/04/2011 - 09:34

Belmont Stakes: Shackleford confirmed for race after Saturday workout

Barbara D. Livingston
Preakness winner Shackleford, Tammy Fox aboard, works five furlongs in 1:00.37 over Belmont Park's main track Saturday morning.

ELMONT, N.Y. – If Dale Romans was looking for a reason not to run Preakness winner Shackleford in next Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, he certainly couldn’t find it watching the colt work Saturday morning over Belmont Park’s main track.

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 18:17

Retama sets stakes for 2011

 

Retama Park near San Antonio has released its Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse stakes schedule for its live season of racing that will open July 1 and extend through Oct. 15. The first leg of the three-tiered meet will offer Quarter Horse racing from July 1 to July 28. The track will then conduct a mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses from July 29-Aug. 27. There will then be straight Thoroughbred racing from Sept. 1-Oct. 15.

“We’re excited about the meet,” said Bryan Brown, the chief operating officer of Retama.

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 18:11

Remington boosts Springboard, Oaks

Remington Park in Oklahoma City put out its Thoroughbred stakes schedule Friday afternoon, and boosted by $50,000 each the purse of the Springboard Mile for 2-year-olds, which will be worth $300,000 on Dec. 10, and the Oaks, which will have a purse of $250,000 when it is run Oct. 16.

The races are part of a schedule of 28 stakes worth a cumulative $3.2 million. Remington, which operates a casino, will run 67 dates this year, from Aug. 18 through Dec. 10.

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 17:18

Lisa's Booby Trap, feel-good story of 2010, looks ahead after successful comeback

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Lisa's Booby Trap wins her comeback race Tuesday at Finger Lakes.

One of racing’s most heartwarming stories of 2010 is on track to continue through 2011 after the filly Lisa's Booby Trap won her first start of the year at Finger Lakes on Tuesday.

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 16:51

Churchill purses being increased

Churchill Downs has announced that overnight purses will be increased 10 percent, effective when racing resumes Thursday at the Louisville, Ky., track.

Purses for overnight races – which include overnight stakes, allowance, maiden special weight, claiming, and maiden-claiming events – will rise by an approximate blended average of $3,150 per race.

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 16:46

Arapahoe Park: Shivers Me heads Sprint cast

Tommie Morelos/Coady Photography
Shivers Me, with Vernon Scantling riding, wins the Inaugural Handicap.

The $40,000 Arapahoe Park Sprint in Colorado on Sunday has drawn invaders from Arizona, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Shivers Me should go favored in the six-furlong race that drew six starters, including recent Turf Paradise allowance winner Trip the General.

Shivers Me is in from New Mexico, where he has won two stakes since last September. He took the $40,000 New Mexico State Fair by a nose going a 1 1/8 miles at the Downs at Albuquerque, and in more recent times won the $50,000 Inaugural Handicap at SunRay Park.

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 16:42

Hastings: Teaming with son allows Henson to branch out

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Prior to 2009, trainer Steve Henson did what most trainers at Hastings do after the meet closes. He stayed in the Vancouver area either working on a farm or breaking babies before coming into Hastings near the end of January to get his horses ready for the traditional mid-April opening.

In 2009, however, he decided to take a string of horses to Turf Paradise, where he admittedly struggled, winning just three races from 56 starters.

“I had the wrong kind of horses,” Henson explained.

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 16:19

Louisiana Downs: St. John's River pointed for Delaware Oaks, then Saratoga

Tom Keyser
St. John's River (13), with Rosie Napravnik up, makes a late run to be second in the Kentucky Oaks.

A summer stakes plan for the Kentucky Oaks runner-up, St. John’s River, has been mapped out, and her first serious work for the Delaware Park and Saratoga races will come Sunday at her Louisiana Downs base, said Andrew Leggio Jr., who trains St. John’s River for Dede McGehee.

“She worked an easy half-mile last week and she’ll work a good five-eighths Sunday,” Leggio said Friday. “We’ll pick up the momentum from this point on.”

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 16:02

Monmouth Park: Straight Story eyes Monmouth Stakes

Barbara D. Livingston
Straight Story could make his next start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Monmouth Stakes on June 12.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Alan Goldberg is strongly considering the Grade 3, $250,000 Monmouth Stakes on June 12 for Straight Story.

The Monmouth, at 1 1/8 miles on turf, is the prep for the meet’s biggest grass event: the Grade 1, $750,000 United Nations Stakes on July 2.

“It’s a good possibility,” Goldberg said of the Monmouth.

Straight Story captured his season debut May 7 in the Grade 3 Fort Marcy at Belmont Park.

“He ran well,” Goldberg said. “He came back fine.”