Thistledown’s season-long jockey race between Luis Gonzalez and Yamil Rosario was a dead heat at the start of Tuesday’s card, the 109th day of the season. Each had 74 winners and both had ridden the same number of horses, 289. Mike Greenfield, the top Thistledown agent for the past 15 years, represents both riders.
Rodrigo Vergara won the last race at Beulah Park on Tuesday aboard longshot Mr. Raven ($98.80) for his third win of the fall/winter meet.
The first two wins for Vergara, 22, a native of Santiago, Chile, resulted from ground-saving trips and rallies along the rail. His first victory in the United States was on the second day of racing at Beulah on Oct. 13, when he guided first-time starter Russarah ($17) home for trainer Ivan Vazquez in a six-furlong sprint. His second came board Apollonious ($16.80) for trainer Albert Dodge going a mile last Saturday.
Large fields have been the norm this season at Retama Park near San Antonio, so it was no surprise that the El Joven and La Senorita both drew big fields to close out the meet Saturday night. The one-mile turf races are for 2-year-olds, with the Wesley Ward-trained R Boy Bill heading the El Joven and Jazzy Jessy, recent winner of the Happy Ticket Stakes at Louisiana Downs, the one to beat in the La Senorita. Both races are worth $75,000.
Nominations for the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., close on Friday. The 1 1/16-mile race is the second richest offering for 2-year-olds in North American behind the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
The Jackpot will anchor a card of eight stakes worth a cumulative $2.5 million on Nov. 20. There will be a special day post of 1 p.m. Central. Last year, Rule won the Delta Jackpot.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After winning the 2007 Sleepy Hollow Stakes en route to a statebred juvenile championship, Giant Moon has been unable to make it back for New York Showcase Day. A variety of ailments – stemming from foot issues – kept him from making the Empire Classic in each of the last two years.
This year, though, Giant Moon has managed to stay healthy and on Saturday he will be one of 11 runners to contest the 1 1/8 miles of the $200,000 Empire Classic, the centerpiece of a 10-race card that includes seven stakes for New York-breds totaling $900,000 in purses.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The front-running Acquired Cat will certainly be a deserving favorite in Friday’s featured turf sprint at Belmont Park. But with the presence of other speed horses in the field and the likelihood of a turf course with plenty of give to it, Acquired Cat’s run of five consecutive turf sprint victories could be in jeopardy.
Trainer Joe Petalino doesn’t have to speak much for Pleasant Storm heading into Friday night’s $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Night Classic at Remington Park. The horse said all he needed to say about the race a week and a half ago, when he worked six furlongs in a dazzling 1:11.
“He worked with two other horses, he needs something to run at, and he worked good,” said Petalino.
Rustler Hustler, coming off a turf breeze last week at Aqueduct in which he outworked Grade 1 winner Court Vision, will not be supplemented to the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and will pointed toward other races, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said Wednesday.
Owned for his first four races by Blazing Meadows Farm and Mark Stanley, Rustler Hustler was purchased privately by owner Paul Pompa after the colt won the Continental Mile at Monmouth Park on Aug. 14. Dutrow has trained him since the purchase was finalized, although the horse has not raced under him.
Fillies made most of the news last week.
The connections of all Turf Sprint hopefuls breathed a collective sigh of relief after watching Serious Attitude ($48.80) explode through the stretch to win last Saturday’s Grade 1 Nearctic and then learning she’s not in.