Noconi will have a lot of momentum Sunday, when he seeks his fourth consecutive graded stakes win in the $350,000 Championship for Quarter Horses at Sunland Park.
The 400-yard race is the final Grade 1 of the year for Quarter Horses, and Noconi enters fresh off becoming a millionaire in the $150,000 Zia Park Distance Championship on Dec. 5. His chief rival is Stolis Winner, who last month became the all-time richest Quarter Horse.
The $200,000 Lone Star Derby is going green. The race will be run on turf for the first time next year as part of a 19-race, $2.1 million stakes schedule that was released by Lone Star Park officials Wednesday. The meet will begin April 14.
The Lone Star Derby, which lost its Grade 3 status for 2011, will have a fresh look next season. In addition to being moved from dirt to turf, the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds will be run as part of the annual Lone Star Million Day program on May 30. This past meet, the Lone Star Derby – won by Game on Dude – was held May 8.
ARCADIA, Calif. − A return to dirt racing at Santa Anita will have a profound effect on the West Coast’s major preps for the May 7 Kentucky Derby. For the first time since the winter of 2006-2007, horses will not have to leave this circuit in order to see if they can handle dirt. But the level of competition here has gotten a bit tougher, too, because the new dirt surface has lured the best Derby prospects of trainer Steve Asmussen, who has a string at Santa Anita that in years past would have been at Fair Grounds.
Evangeline Downs will host the ninth annual John Franks Memorial 2-year-olds in training sale on March 20, the Opelousas, La., track announced this week. The deadline to enter horses in the auction, which is being put on by Stemmans Inc., is Jan. 5.
The average at the sale this past spring was $7,803, when 134 juveniles sold for total receipts of $1,045,700. The sales-topper was a $70,000 colt by Holy Bull.
Rather than complain about the near-misses that come with having won with just 3 of his first 35 starters at the Fair Grounds meet, Tom Amoss is putting a different spin on a period of mild frustration.
“I challenge anybody to match my record for being in the money,” Amoss said with false bravado and a laugh.
The latest incarnation in the stop-and-start training career of Chuck Peery began in the spring of 2009 in Kentucky, some time after he resettled on the 23-acre farm in Versailles, Ky., that he bought with his wife, Tracy. Originally from the state of Washington, Peery enjoyed his best years in Northern California before relocating.
For the second year in a row, the Golden Gate Fields winter-spring meeting will begin without a stakes on the card. The $50,000 Silveyville was canceled when only three runners were entered. But with several major 3-year-old stakes coming up early in the meeting, Golden Gate fans and bettors have plenty to look forward to.
Among the highlights of the 104-day meeting, which runs through June 12, are the $100,000 California Oaks on New Year’s Day, the $100,000 California Derby on Jan. 15, and the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby on Feb. 12.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita’s new main track is getting a trial by water.
With opening day fast approaching, a series of soaking, sometimes vicious storms pounded the area. By Wednesday morning, when entries were being taken for Sunday’s opening-day card, the rainfall had totaled more than 12 inches since last Saturday.
Had this happened a year ago, when the old synthetic track had drainage problems, opening day might very well have been in jeopardy.
“The old stuff, that would have been a disaster,” trainer Bob Baffert said.
PHOENIX – The best juveniles on the grounds will take a final swing at their local division titles Sunday at Turf Paradise when 2-year-old males clash in the $25,000 Lost in the Fog and 2-year-old fillies go the $25,000 Arizona Juvenile Fillies. Both races are at 6 1/2 furlongs, with the Lost in the Fog drawing nine and going as race 8. The Arizona Juvenile Fillies matches eight and goes as race 5.
The Manitoba Jockey Club has announced that Darren Dunn and Sharon Gulyas will be taking on new corporate roles at Assiniboia Downs effective Jan. 1, 2011.
Dunn, who has been the director of operations, has been named chief executive officer, and Gulyas, who has been general manager, will become vice-president of finance and gaming.
Kris Nancoo, who had been the finance director, has retired.
Dunn, who started out at Assiniboia Downs as a press box runner in 1982, has been calling the races here and will continue in that capacity for at least one more meeting.