The combination of a freeze-and-thaw cycle plus the anticipation of additional snow and freezing rain has caused Penn National Race Course to call off its Friday and Saturday night live racing programs.
Both cards will be brought back on Monday and Tuesday nights.
Delta Downs in Vinton, La., has canceled Thursday night's racing program because of a winter storm moving into the region. Delta is located in southwestern Louisiana.
"We canceled because the weather forecast has freezing rains in it, and the bridges are supposed to ice over," said Chris Warren, the director of racing operations at Delta.
Jockey Corey Lanerie, a 36-year-old native of Lafayette, La., scored the 3,000th win of his riding career in the third race on Thursday at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
Lanerie guided Steve Margolis-trained Native Mambo to a pace-pressing victory in an off-the-turf claiming race for the milestone, which he came up to quickly with a strong recent run at the track.
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- The connections of Persuading and Never Retreat should be happy to see Justaroundmidnight running in the Gulfstream Turf rather than coming back against fillies and mares in Saturday’s $150,000 Suwannee River.
As many as six of the eight older horses entered in the $50,000 Budweiser at Sunland Park on Saturday could be vying for the lead. It’s a pace recipe that could set the table for either Chuchuluco or Happy Humor.
Both horses have had success coming from off the pace, and both will be shortening up in distance for the five-furlong Budweiser.
Trainer Bernie Flint is hoping Sam Houston’s turf course will be the perfect fit for Ice Mist in Saturday night’s $50,000 Jersey Lilly. He has sent her in from Fair Grounds for the 1 1/16-mile stakes for fillies and mares, and she looks like the speed of the race.
“She’s got to have her kind of course,” Flint said. “She might like the course and she might not like the course. I don’t know. We decided to go over there and try it.”
It was about this time last year that Comedero embarked on a five-race winning streak after being privately purchased by owner Peter Redekop and turned over to trainer Mike Stidham. Inhisglory, purchased since his last start by Redekop and turned over to Stidham, has a long ways to go to follow the half-million-dollar path blazed by Comedero, but he might have as good a chance as any of the six horses entered in the $60,000 Black Gold Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Dale Bennett sent out his quick sprinter Conchacer to capture a prep for the Pelican Stakes in an eye-catching 1:10.56 on Dec. 18 and in past years most likely would have wheeled him right back in three weeks in the six-furlong Pelican.
But an older and wiser Bennett opted to skip that race and wait for Saturday’s $75,000 Super Stakes at seven furlongs. Conchacer will face nine rivals, including Pelican winner See I A and Capt. Candyman Can, who will be making his first start since running in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – At 10 a.m. Thursday, with dry conditions prevailing and with the foreign object some refer to as the sun beaming down from the sky, Aqueduct’s inner track looked to be in good shape and conditions seemed ripe for a day of racing.
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ARCADIA, Calif. – The $100,000 Thunder Road Handicap on turf at Santa Anita on Saturday will determine Victor’s Cry’s March itinerary.
A win could lead to a start in the $5 million Dubai Duty Free at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on March 26. Anything else would likely lead to a start in the $300,000 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on March 5.
Trainer Eoin Harty is thinking of Dubai but has yet to pack a bag.
