Last weekend’s allowance race that came up as tough as a stakes turned out to be an almost perfect prep for the April 30 Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields. The one-mile turf race had eight entrants – four locals and four from Southern California.
Hudson Landing won the race over the stakes winner Posse Power, with graded winner Awesome Gem in third.
“We’re surprised the race came up so tough,” said stakes coordinator David Jerkins. “It was a very competitive field.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Times Gone By has been second and fourth in two one-mile turf races at Santa Anita this year, leaving trainer Richard Mandella alternating between a state of delight and confusion.
After finishing second in an optional claimer on Feb. 10, his first start since last May, Times Gone By was fourth as a 34-1 outsider in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on March 5.
“I thought he’d run like he did the first time,” Mandella said of the Kilroe. “I was a little disappointed.”
Uncle Mo’s arrival in New York for Saturday's Wood Memorial will be delayed.
The Tex Sutton flight expected to bring Uncle Mo - and 19 other horses - from south Florida to New York on Tuesday was canceled due to weather issues. The flight has been rescheduled for Wednesday.
A 6,500-acre forest fire that swept through the town of Ruidoso Downs, N.M., on Sunday afternoon inflicted little damage to the racetrack Ruidoso Downs. The corner of one barn was burned as a result of the fire that roared adjacent to the track, according to a release issued by Ruidoso.
The fire grew as the result of high winds and dry conditions, and as of Monday afternoon it was not fully contained. The fire is currently burning east of Ruidoso Downs, but is not a threat to the track, according to the release issued Monday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Be Bullish, who quickly won himself out by winning his first two starts for Rick Dutrow, will shoot for his third straight win – and second in five days – in Wednesday’s $60,000 Hamlet overnight stakes.
One of a handful of gray New York-breds that has been in raging form here lately along with Inherit the Gold and R Betty Graybull, Be Bullish was haltered from a midwinter optional claimer for $75,000 – a not inconsiderable sum for a gelding who was making his 45th start and had won just once from 16 starts dating back to October 2009.
After a promising start to its season, Fair Grounds experienced more betting declines during its 2010-2011 race meet, which ended March 27.
Total average daily handle fell to $2.97 million, a drop of 4.5-percent from the $3.11 million total average daily in 2009-2010, according to figures supplied by the Louisiana State Racing Commission. (Fair Grounds, like all Churchill Downs Inc. racetracks, does not publicize handle figures.)
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – One year after finishing a troubled-trip second in the Kentucky Derby with Ice Box, owner Robert LaPenta and trainer Nick Zito are positioned to make another charge at the blanket of roses with Dialed In, who, like Ice Box in 2010, enters the race off a last-to-first victory in the Florida Derby.
Turfway Park has reported moderate gains in gross all-sources and ontrack handle at the winter-spring meet that began Jan. 1 and ended Sunday.
All-sources handle totaled just over $95 million, an increase of more than 3 percent over comparable 2010 dates, while ontrack wagering grossed over $5.6 million, an increase of 6 percent. The per-day all-sources average of $2,021,570 on 47 programs was down less than 1 percent from last year, when only 45 cards were held, while the average ontrack handle of $120,162 was up 2 percent.
STICKNEY, Ill. – He’s not exactly Uncle Mo, but Watch Me Go will be the horse with at least a hint of name recognition in Saturday’s Illinois Derby.
