Penn National Race Course is seeking to shift its live-racing schedule in 2011 to take advantage of a paucity of night-racing signals on Monday and Tuesday, the track said on Wednesday.
Under the revised schedule, Penn National would conduct 202 days of live racing in 2011, with cards on Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. In 2010, the track ran a similar number of live racing dates, but conducted the cards on a Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Ontario Racing Commission has allowed an appeal by owner Jamie Attard and has placed his horse Federal Court first in the 10th race here July 31.
Coffee Bar had finished first while Federal Court had run second in the race. There was no inquiry and the result was declared official. Attard filed a protest and notice of appeal based on his belief that Coffee Bar had interefered with Federal Court during the stretch run.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Boy’s Ring will take a two-race win streak into Friday’s feature at Woodbine Racetrack, a second-level allowance with a $62,500 claiming option which has also lured three stakes winners. The Boy’s Ring, a homebred owned and trained by Paul Buttigieg, has won 3 of 6 starts at the meet, which includes a pair of Ontario-sired allowance victories. His Oct. 6 tally, which followed a summer layoff, came against nonwinners-of-three Ontario-sired stock, and he was awarded a modest 74 Beyer Speed Figure.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield is busy setting up shop at his winter headquarters in Payson Park, Fla., following a business trip to Japan with the filly Ave and a brief holiday in Hawaii. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Attfield probably will not be seen here at Woodbine Racetrack until the Sovereign Award ceremony next April 1.
“I’m sending them out of there pretty quickly,” said Attfield. “There are not that many horses with races left, and some of their races aren’t going.”
Trainer Tim McCanna has past history on his side to explain his confidence in Saratoga Boot going into Friday’s Grade 3, $100,000 All American at Golden Gate Fields.
Saratoga Boot – one of two 3-year-olds in the field of eight in the 1 1/8-mile Tapeta race – is the only runner in the field with a victory at the distance.
New Jersey shipper D’wild Ride, who came across the Delaware River two months ago to win an allowance race with an inflated purse of $110,000, duplicated the feat Tuesday when she overtook pacesetter Noble Maz in the stretch to win the $75,000 Cornucopia Stakes for filly and mare sprinters at Parx Racing.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Derek Ryan has only one victory from 32 stakes starters this year, but he knows he is only a few body parts away from having a career year.
“It was one of those years,” Ryan said Tuesday from Monmouth Park. “It was a good year − it could have been great.”
One of the most excruciating defeats for Ryan came in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct, where his Musket Man was beaten a nose by Warrior’s Reward. That loss came about three weeks after Schoolyard Dreams was beaten a nose by Odysseus in the Tampa Bay Derby.
NEW ORLEANS -- Looking out over the Fair Grounds main track at the end of training hours Monday, Al Stall pointed to one of the horses he trains breaking off into an easy jog.
“That’s Blame’s full sister,” Stall said. “Look at her. She’s just like him. She’s relaxed like him, her hind end looks just like him.”
NEW ORLEANS – Fair Grounds, one assumes, has nowhere to go but up when its 2010-2011 racing season commences Thursday.
Average daily handle from all sources fell more than 11 percent in 2008-2009 compared to the previous season, but that decline was nothing compared to what happened during Fair Grounds’ most recent meeting. Business during the 2009-2010 meet was down 30 percent for much of the winter, and by meet’s end, average daily all-sources handle had dropped 20 percent even from those deflated 2008-2009 figures.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Thursday’s 97th running of the Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct could easily be renamed the Fall Middleweight Handicap. None of the five top-weighted horses – including the 140-pound highweight Girolamo – entered the Grade 3 race, leaving a competitive if not compelling field of nine carrying anywhere from 126 to 129 pounds.
The Fall Highweight, run at six furlongs, is the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature and goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 11:25 a.m. Eastern and concludes at 3:10 p.m.
