SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It’s not easy winning a stakes race three straight years – just ask Zenyatta, who recently bagged her third Clement L. Hirsch by a neck, or Forever Together, whose bid for a Diana three-peat fell a head short.
So, Banrock has his work cut out when he attempts to win Thursday’s $100,000 West Point for the third consecutive year.
With more than $7 million in improvements awaiting patrons returning to Remington Park for Thursday night’s opener, it’s evident that the Oklahoma City track has ushered in a new era of ownership. Global Gaming, a subsidiary of Chickasaw Nation, has changed the look of Remington’s face, apron, and guts since completing an $80 million deal to buy the track and its 750-machine casino from Magna Entertainment in January.
Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-olds take center stage at Presque Isle Downs Thursday evening in a pair of 1 1/16-mile Tapeta stakes, the $75,000 Malvern Rose for fillies and the Lil E. Tee Handicap for colts and geldings. The Malvern Rose drew 10 entrants and will be run as the sixth race, and the Lil E. Tee is the seventh race and has a field of 11.
Average daily handle at the Sonoma County Fair meet in Santa Rosa, Calif., fell from last year’s shorter meet, a decline that accelerated during the last five days of the 15-day meet, when there was no fair to accompany the racing.
Last year, the Sonoma County Fair meet ran for 10 days during the fair itself. This year’s meet began on July 28 and ended on Sunday.
Suffolk Downs will cut purses 26 percent through the end of the 2010 season following the failure of an expanded gaming bill that could have brought slot machines to the East Boston track.
The reduction will pull daily average purses down to $66,000, allowing the track to save $1 million over the final 50 days of the meet while still meeting state mandates for purse distribution.
AUBURN, Wash. – A raft of nominated horses from California, Kentucky, and Ontario threatened to turn the 75th Longacres Mile into a showcase for out-of-towners, but most of those nominees fell by the wayside last week and now the Northwest’s richest race is shaping up as a turf war between the top horses at Emerald Downs and the top horses at Hastings in Vancouver, British Columbia.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dash It Dreamer’s recent form is hard to fault if you ignore her subpar showing on the dirt at Fort Erie, and she should be prominent in Thursday’s Woodbine headliner, a second-level allowance sprint with a $62,500-claiming option.
Dash It Dreamer, a 4-year-old trained by Reade Baker, completed her 3-year-old campaign with three consecutive allowance scores, two of which were in Ontario-sired company.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It was here last summer when Pure Class first put herself on the radar, with an overpowering victory against 2-year-old maiden fillies that stamped her as one to follow for both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies that fall, perhaps even the Kentucky Oaks the following spring. But an injury last fall put an end to those aspirations, and in three starts so far this year, she only sports a first-level allowance victory.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The same horses pre-entered Friday in the 28th Arlington Million were officially entered Tuesday in an informal racing-office draw at Arlington Park, with the 7-5 morning-line favorite, Gio Ponti, landing post 6 in a 10-horse field.
With three weeks, or 18 racing days, remaining in this year’s Saratoga meet, daily averages in all-sources handle, ontrack handle, and attendance are all down compared with the same point of last year’s meet.
Through the first 22 days of this year’s expanded 40-day meet, daily average all-sources handle was $13,329,955, down 5.6 percent from last year’s daily average of $14,120,096 through the first 18 days of a 36-day meet.
Daily average ontrack handle through 22 days is $2,804,780, down 12.7 percent from last year’s daily average of $3,211,849 through 18 days.