Leandro Goncalves won three races Sunday at Hoosier Park to get within three wins of leading rider Francisco Torres.
Goncalves won on An Ounce of Haven ($7) in the second, Reflate the Bubble ($3) in the fifth, and Unreachable Star ($4.20) in the eighth race, the Brickyard Stakes.
Goncalves, a 28-year-old native of Brazil, won the riding title at Turfway Park last September and the Indiana Downs title this spring. He hopes to add Hoosier Park to that list.
Beginning Tuesday, Thistledown will race solo through the end of its meet, Nov. 6. River Downs, its 7&7 partner since April, concludes its 2010 season on Labor Day and unlike in past seasons, Thistledown will not split 7&7 cards with Beulah Park. Instead, it will schedule eight-race cards each day with a post time of 1:20 p.m,
Thistledown adds Thursdays to its racing schedule next week.
Over the next few days, trainer Paul Jones will inspect about 300 sale yearlings, run horses in the $1.54 million All American Derby on Sunday, the $2 million All American Futurity on Monday, and try to accommodate all the people who only "need five minutes."
Such is the life of the nation's leading Quarter Horse trainer on Labor Day weekend at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico. "It's hell week," Jones said of all the activity.
Jockey Perry Ouzts won his 83rd race of the Jockey Club meet at River Downs on Tuesday aboard Regent’s Daughter ($3.60), setting a record for victories by a jockey at the meet. The 56-year-old Ouzts eclipsed the record of 82 set by Dean Sarvis in 2004. Prior to Sarvis, the record for was held by Steve Neff for 18 years.
Owner-trainer John Casey plans to point his star 3-year-old filly Down Town Allen to the $400,000 Charles Town Oaks on Sept. 18.
The seven-furlong Oaks, the richest sprint in the country for 3-year-old fillies, will be Down Town Allen’s third stakes venture against open company this season. Previously, she won the $100,000 Lady Charles Town and the $85,000 West Virginia Secretary State at Mountaineer.
The long awaited new grandstand at Parx Racing, formerly Philadelphia Park, will be unveiled Friday afternoon during the Bensalem, Pa., track’s final Happy Hour program of the season. First post is 3 p.m. Eastern.
On the first floor, there are new seating areas, some equipped with personal handicapping desks, a sports bar, flat screen TVs, new food and beverage options, and easy paddock and apron access.
As a seven-time winner of the All American Futurity who qualified three horses for Monday's renewal of the Grade 1, $2 million race for Quarter Horses at Ruidoso Downs, jockey Jacky Martin's mount choice is a powerful handicapping tool. But his decision to ride Jls Mr Bigtime runs deeper than just the fact that the horse set the fastest qualifying time for the finale. Martin was responsible for the horse's initial training this past fall in Louisiana.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Tuscan Evening, winner of six stakes for turf females earlier this year, died after a workout on Aug. 8 from acute pulmonary hemorrhage, according to Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director of the California Horse Racing Board.
Arthur said Wednesday that the diagnosis was made after a necropsy. He said such incidents are rare.
“We get a few each year, as many in training and racing,” he said. “This does happen.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A surprisingly large field of 11 was entered in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Forego Stakes at Saratoga, and that was just fine with Ian Wilkes, trainer of Warrior’s Reward.
Before entries closed, Wilkes feared that far fewer horses than that would be entered, and that Vineyard Haven would wind up as the main speed in the race. But the entries of Checklist, Big Drama, Charitable Man and Omniscient should ensure a lively pace for the late-running Warrior’s Reward, who drew post 9.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It will cost $13,750 to supplement and start Rigoletta in Saturday’s $250,000 Darley Debutante at Del Mar.
Considering that owners Pavla and Erik Nygaard paid just $35,000 for Rigoletta at a 2-year-olds in training sale in April, the five-figure investment – a $10,000 supplemental fee and $3,750 in entry and starting fees – may be worth the gamble.
“We feel like it’s just tacking it on to her purchase price,” trainer Dan Hendricks said Wednesday.