Members of the racing community gathered Sunday at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., to remember the jockey Mark Anthony Villa, 44, who died in a racing accident Saturday.
Mike Kelley, Villa's agent, said the jockey colony gathered at the winner's circle for a prayer. The first race was run in silence in Villa's memory.
Though all signs point to reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra running in this weekend's Grade 1, $350,000 Beldame at Belmont, her connections have still not officially confirmed that she is running in the 1 1/8-mile race.
At Saratoga on Monday, Rachel Alexandra worked four furlongs in 48.45 seconds over the Oklahoma training track. It was the fastest of 50 works at the distance. Saratoga clockers caught her first quarter in 24.95 seconds and her second quarter in 23.50 while galloping out in 1:01.09.
Blind Luck will break from the rail while giving each of her rivals 10 pounds on Saturday when she runs in the Grade 2, $750,000 Fitz Dixon Cotillion at Parx Racing at Philadelphia Park.
The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies drew five horses Monday, including Havre de Grace, who has been edged by Blind Luck in both the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga and the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks. Blind Luck on Saturday will be seeking her sixth graded win of the year in a campaign highlighted by a victory in the Kentucky Oaks.
AUBURN, Wash. – Emerald Downs wrapped its 90-day meeting Sunday, with wagering, attendance, and average field size declining markedly from 2009.
Average daily betting on races run at Emerald Downs, and by Emerald patrons on races run elsewhere, was about $1,182,000, a decline of 7.4 percent from the previous season, track president Ron Crockett said shortly after the final race Sunday evening.
The average all-source handle on races contested at Emerald Downs was about $763,000 per day, Crockett said, down from $842,000 in 2009, a decline of 9.3 percent.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Derek Ryan had to scrap plans of running Metropolitan Handicap runner-up Musket Man in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park after the colt spiked a temperature Saturday at Monmouth Park, forcing him to miss a workout. Ryan said Eibar Coa had driven down to Monmouth from New York to work the colt.
Ryan said Monday that Musket Man’s temperature was back to normal but that he would now be pointed to the $300,000 Monmouth Cup on Oct. 9.
Assiniboia Downs wound up its 2010 meeting here Sunday with a total all-sources handle of $8.9 million., down a scant .04 percent from last year’s total.
Daily average handle, which had soared last year with the addition of Wednesday-night racing, was $141,270. Ontrack wagering was up by 6 percent.
The figures were based on 63 days of racing and did not include two partial cards of one race and four races.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Jockey Tyler Baze will miss the opening week of the Oak Tree at Hollywood Park meeting that begins on Thursday to continue his recovery from facial injuries sustained at Del Mar in late July, according to his agent, Vic Stauffer.
Stauffer said on Sunday that Baze has been working horses in recent days, including at Hollywood Park on Sunday, but said the 27-year-old jockey wants to target a return for the second week of the meeting.
“He’s not quite ready,” Stauffer said. “He’s very close. He said he wants to feel 100 percent.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Cody Samora has won her first three starts in dominant fashion but gets a stern test Wednesday when she takes on more seasoned rivals in the $70,000 Anniron Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares at Belmont Park. The Anniron, a seven-furlong race that drew a field of 10, is a prep for the $125,000 Iroquois Stakes here Oct. 23.
AUBURN, Wash. – Couldabenthewhisky romped to a five-length victory Sunday in the $75,000 Gottstein Futurity as Emerald Downs brought down the curtain on its 15th season.
The fourth favorite in a field of eight in Emerald’s traditional 2-year-old championship, Couldabenthewhisky ($9.80) tracked pacesetter Winter Warlock from midpack down the backstretch, moved readily to take command turning for home, and quickly drew clear while running 1 1/16 miles on a sloppy track in 1:42.60.
On Nov. 4, 2000, a 3-year-old who was only five months removed from his first career victory won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. A decade later, a son of Tiznow will attempt to pull off a similar feat.
Morning Line, who didn’t win his first race until June 27 at Monmouth Park, won his stakes debut Saturday at Parx Racing, taking the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby by a neck over First Dude. Now, his connections will likely point him to the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.