HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s always been said that you never know who you might see show up in the entries – even in an allowance race – during the Gulfstream Park meeting. On Wednesday, Breeders’ Cup winner Tapitsfly returns to make her first start since capturing the 2009 Juvenile Fillies Turf in the $57,000 allowance feature for fillies and mares, to be run at one mile on the turf.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Before facing eight other maidens in the seventh race Sunday, Honest Gold had finished second by a nose in her two prior starts, at Belmont Park in October and at Parx Racing in Philadelphia in late November. All that frustration was blown away in the six-furlong race when the 4-year-old filly romped by 9 3/4 lengths under Alex Solis, giving her the second-largest win margin of the opening five-day week of the meet.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Both Rule and Leave of Absence finished second in their 2011 debuts on Saturday, with Rule a runner-up to Soaring Empire in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope and Leave of Absence no match for upset winner Determinato in the Spectacular Bid. But their respective trainers, Todd Pletcher and Rick Violette, were each more than satisfied with their horse’s performance and are eagerly looking ahead to more important engagements later this winter.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The opening week of the 2011 Gulfstream Park meeting was an unequivocal success both on the racetrack and especially from a business standpoint. Good racing, highlighted by five stakes and large fields, along with perfect weather saw attendance rise 32 percent and total wagering on live races increase 17.2 percent, from $29 million to $34 million, compared to the opening week of the 2010 season. Ontrack handle was up 28.3 percent from a year ago.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tampa Bay Downs has been carding smaller racing programs since the meet began Dec. 11.
“Tampa is no different than the rest of the country in that the poor economy has affected our racing program in several different ways,” said Allison Deluca, racing secretary at Tampa Bay Downs. “For starters, more and more owners of cheaper claiming horses are either getting out of the business or cutting back drastically, and that hurts us because claiming horses are the backbone of most racing programs, ours included.
ARCADIA, Calif. – May Day Rose didn’t exactly win as a 1-20 shot should, but she managed to defeat two seemingly overmatched rivals as the heavy favorite in the Grade 3, $92,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Joe Bravo was beaming as he came into the Gulfstream Park winner’s circle after capping a sweep of Grade 3 turf stakes Sunday aboard longshot Justaroundmidnight in the ninth running of the $100,000 Marshua’s River at Gulfstream Park.
“That was fun, that was fun, that was fun,” Bravo said rhythmically.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – What a difference a nose makes.
In the case of Little Mike, a nose made the difference between the steadily improving gelding becoming not only a stakes winner but a graded stakes winner for the first time after he won a head bob from Blues Street to upset Sunday’s $100,000 Fort Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
In the wake of a poor response from medical personnel to a jockey who was injured in the paddock at Aqueduct on Saturday, the New York Racing Association on Sunday implemented several new procedures designed to better serve the riders.
First, NYRA assigned a dedicated emergency medical technician to shadow the jockeys throughout a racing day. This EMT will be in the jockeys’ room, lead the riders to the paddock, and follow them back to the room after the race is run.
