INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The lesson that Industry Leader learned when he finished second in his stakes debut last month may prove invaluable in Saturday’s $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park.
Industry Leader was beaten 1 1/2 lengths by Premier Pegasus in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue Stakes over seven furlongs on Nov. 20, but did not have the best of trips.
MIAMI – There are three Grade 1 winners among the 22 horses nominated for this year’s renewal of the Grade 2 W.L. McKnight Handicap, and from all indications, all three are planning to show up at Calder Saturday for the 1 1/2-mile fixture.
Presious Passion, who won this race in 2007 and 2008, will make his fourth appearance in the McKnight. He’s expected to be joined in the starting gate by Prince Will I Am, winner of the Grade 1 Jamaica Handicap on Oct. 9, and Telling, who has won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer each of the last two years at Saratoga.
One Quick First Down, the second-longest shot in the field, won the $2,033,700 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity at Los Alamitos on Friday evening, giving the Vessels Stallion Farm a poignant victory in the track’s richest race.
The win came four months after Scoop Vessels died in a plane crash in Oregon, and two weeks after One Quick First Down’s broodmare sire, First Down Dash, died at Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, Calif. First Down Dash, who was 27 at the time of his death, is Quarter Horse racing’s all-time leading sire.
Jockey Cliff Berry tied a North American riding record by winning with all seven of his mounts at Remington Park on Friday night. Russell Baze was the most recent rider to win seven races on a card without a loss at Bay Meadows on Aug. 18, 2006.
Just two other jockeys are known to have gone 7 for 7 on a card, Tim Moccasin in 2001 and Richard DePass in 1980. The record for most wins on a single card is nine, which Eddie Castro set with 11 mounts at Calder Race Course, in 2005. Chris Antley won nine races on a single day in 1987, riding at both Aqueduct and The Meadowlands.
Four horses with stakes victories on their resumes this season, including Rummy’s Command, the upset winner of last month’s Sophomore Sprint, are among seven late-season 3-year-olds entered in Monday night’s feature race at Mountaineer Racetrack.
The 5 1/2-furlong sprint, which goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 7 p.m. Eastern, is a no-conditions allowance, restricted to 3-year-olds, with a purse of $33,700.
Tony Scott, a longtime assistant to Joe Woodard, notched his first career victory as a trainer when sending out Young Joe to a five-length triumph in the second race Friday at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Scott, 39, grew up in the Louisville area and has worked off and on for Woodard since the early 1990s while also serving stints under trainers Eric Reed and Ken McPeek. Scott is serving in the stead of Woodard, who earlier this month began serving a 90-day suspension stemming from medications violations early in the year.
MIAMI – Gourmet Dinner has already won a $1 million race and owns a near-perfect record. But the winner of last month’s Delta Jackpot has yet to get the kind of respect due a 2-year-old who has already all but assured himself a spot in the 2011 Kentucky Derby.
Trainer Steve Standridge and owner William Terrill will try to get Gourmet Dinner some of that respect next week when they send their star from his Calder base to Hollywood Park for the $750,000 CashCall Futurity.
Lone Star Park, whose sale from MI Developments to Global Gaming has been delayed, has laid off some employees since the close of its Quarter Horse meet in November. Dan Leary, the director of communications for Lone Star, and John Records, who oversaw operations at the track’s simulcast pavilion, were the highest-ranking positions laid off, confirmed Drew Shubeck, president of Lone Star.
The cuts were made because of the delay of the sale, in an effort to preserve cash, Shubeck said.
The Arkansas Racing Commission adopted several amendments to its rules at a meeting Wednesday, including one that provides for the maximum toe grab height on front shoes to be increased from two to four millimeters.
Another amendment allows superfecta wagering with at least seven betting interests. The minimum number of betting interests had been eight. The new rules go into effect Jan. 1.
Clubhouse Ride, third in the Delta Jackpot Stakes on Nov. 20, and Ronin Dax, fifth in his first two stakes races, worked at Hollywood Park on Friday in advance of the $750,000 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 18.
Clubhouse Ride worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds, while Ronin Dax was timed in 1:00.40.
