OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On March 9, 2019 trainer Ben Colebrook ran a 20-1 shot named Knicks Go in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. He finished seventh of eight.
On Wednesday – March 9, 2022 – Colebrook entered just his second horse at Aqueduct since then when he put Club Car in Saturday’s $100,000 Correction Stakes. She won’t be 20-1, nor will she likely be sent to another trainer and become Horse of the Year a la Knicks Go.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Helium has not exactly distinguished himself as a standout since upsetting the 2021 Tampa Bay Derby at 15-1, although the 4-year-old son of Ironicus might have a new outlook after being gelded since his latest start. He’s had three recent works at trainer Mark Casse’s training center in Ocala, including a half-mile breeze Wednesday in 48.20 seconds.
“We’re probably looking at an allowance race at Keeneland next month,” Casse said.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Oh, great. Local forecasters are calling for a 100 percent chance of rain for the biggest day of the Tampa Bay Downs meet Saturday, although the prospect of a sloppy track sure didn’t keep horsemen from flooding the entry box for the Tampa Bay Derby.
A capacity field of 12 3-year-olds was entered here Wednesday for the Tampa Bay Derby, the only points qualifier toward the May 7 Kentucky Derby scheduled for this weekend or next.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Umberto Rispoli is embracing the challenge that awaits him when he moves his tack from Southern California to New York next month.
“If you want to be one of the best, you have to compete with the best,” Rispoli said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
The purses of 21 of 39 stakes at the Del Mar summer meeting have been increased this year as the track continues to recover from prize money reductions forced by the pandemic in recent years.
The stakes program will be worth a record $8.275 million, compared to $7.45 million in 2021. The track offered $5.25 million in stakes purses in the pandemic-ravaged 2020 summer meeting.
Strong handle in 2021 has allowed for an increase in stakes purses.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – On any given Saturday, the 31-year-old Staton Flurry can be found parking cars across the street from Oaklawn Park.
But this Saturday Flurry will be in the track’s paddock, standing alongside one of the top mares in the country. He’s a co-owner of Shedaresthedevil, an Eclipse Award finalist in 2021 who will launch her 5-year-old season in the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri.
The 1 1/16-mile stakes drew nine fillies and mares, including champion Ce Ce, recent Houston Ladies’ Classic winner Pauline’s Pearl, and Remington Park Oaks winner Lady Mystify.
Eight new names are among the 23 individual betting interests in the fourth of five pools in the 2022 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday along with the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager.
Both pools open Friday at noon Eastern, with closing time for Pool 4 set for Sunday at 6 p.m. and the Oaks pool closing 30 minutes later.
The 20-cent Golden pick six paid $1,889 on Monday at Golden Gate Fields on a day with a mandatory payout and a seven-figure pool of new money.
The bet began with a carryover of $147,144 from Sunday. Bettors added $1,366,651 to the wager that is paid out entirely when there is a single ticket or on programs with a mandatory payout.
Eleven horses in the four $100,000 stakes scheduled for Tuesday at Parx racetrack in Philadelphia have scratched, with the vast majority of those scratches coming from trainers based outside Pennsylvania who passed on shipping to the track in the wake of a quarantine of two barns there.
The scratches include four horses each in the Society Hill Stakes and the City of Brotherly Love Stakes, reducing the Society Hill to seven entrants and the City of Brotherly Love to four entrants. The Main Line Stakes had one scratch, and the Rittenhouse Square Stakes had two scratches.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sunday’s local work tab here was a large one with the best move of the day turned in by Drain the Clock. He went a half-mile in 46.02, under a hold to finish, before continuing on with tons of energy when asked and pulling up after six furlongs in 1:11.90. The work gave trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. all the encouragement he needs to ship the Grade 1 winner to Dubai for the $2 million Golden Shaheen at Meydan on March 26.
