LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Four of the five older sprinters in the Sunday feature at Churchill Downs show triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures on their past performances. So what’s the name of this stakes race that attracted such a wealth of equine talent?
Actually, it’s a six-furlong allowance race with a $59,800 purse.
“For the money, it sure came up a tough one,” said trainer Steve Margolis, who will send out Cash Refund, the 9-5 morning-line favorite, in the third of 10 Sunday races.
OPELOUSAS, La. - Jockey Tracy Hebert was badly injured at Evangeline Downs on Wednesday evening when his mount fell and Hebert was hit by a trailing horse. Hebert is in Opelousas General Hospital with multiple injuries, including two punctured lungs, a broken breastbone, and a broken nose. He also broke all of the ribs on his left side, according to his agent, Huey Lyons.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The pick six and super high five both proved solvable on the first day of racing at Churchill Downs after the Kentucky Derby.
Ten winning tickets, each worth a healthy $147,507 on a $2 bet, were sold Thursday at Churchill Downs on the pick six, which started the day with a carryover of just more than $500,000 before another $1.6 million was bet into the pool. Five of six winners returned $643.20.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The Grade 1 winner Rail Trip is on the comeback trail.
Away from the races since finishing fifth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Rail Trip has breezed four times for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. and is nearing a return to the races.
Dutrow said that Rail Trip had a significant issue with the frog, or the bottom of his right front foot, that kept him sidelined for several months.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Arch Traveler has the pedigree and the body type to suggest that he will go a distance of ground, but the 3-year-old colt demonstrated again on Thursday that shorter races may be his forte.
Under Jose Lezcano, Arch Traveler slipped through an opening along the rail in mid-stretch, then spurted clear to win Thursday's $60,000 Ziggy’s Boy Stakes by three lengths. Glickman, who set the pace under Eddie Castro, finished second by three-quarters of a length over the late-running Rocking Out. Free Entry and The Fed Eased completed the order of finish.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Hidden Recipe and Going Away Baby, who in February accounted for the first round of Texas Stallion Stakes races for 3-year-olds, are both back to lead their respective divisions in the series that continues Saturday at Lone Star Park.
There will be two $100,000 Texas Stallion Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles, with one race for colts and geldings and the other for fillies. Both are restricted to the offspring of eligible stallions.
Honkytonk Stomp heads a field of 10 set to contest the $15,000 Speed Stakes at Lincoln Race Course on Saturday afternoon.
Honkytonk Stomp, trained by Dudley Graham, should be the speed of the speed in this 4 1/2-furlong dash. After winning an open allowance at Beulah Park in January, Honkytonk Stomp returned to Nebraska with a powerful 4 1/2-length win in the half-mile Grasmick Stakes, where he equaled Leaping Plum’s track record of 44.20 seconds.
School Lass will attempt to win her second consecutive Ohio-bred event since coming north from Oaklawn Park when she heads a field of seven Ohio-bred 3-year-old fillies in the $50,000 Tomboy, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf at River Downs.
The fastest Iowa-bred geldings in training will meet Saturday night in the $70,000 John Wayne Stakes at Prairie Meadows. All 10 entrants appear to have a legitimate chance in the six-furlong sprint.
Collectively, the horses in the John Wayne have won 51 races at Prairie Meadows and show excellent form over this oval.
