ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Madman Diaries is back at Woodbine, and that’s bad news for the four other 2-year-olds who have chosen to face him in Saturday’s $150,000 Colin Stakes.
Trained and bred by Wesley Ward, who also is a part owner, Madman Diaries was a 9 3/4-length winner of a 4 1/2-furlong maiden race in his local bow May 9.
Six weeks later, Madman Diaries doubled up in the five-furlong Victoria, with a winning margin of nine lengths.
Top Michigan mare Valley Loot heads a cast of nine statebred fillies and mares in the $50,000, six-furlong Larkspur Handicap at Pinnacle Race Course.
Valley Loot won the 2008 edition of the race and was third last year for trainer Ronnie Allen and owner Felicia Campbell, the president of Pinnacle. In two outings this year, the 6-year-old Valley Loot has a pair of seconds. She was run down late on June 20 to be beaten by a neck. Most recently, on July 6, Valley Loot rallied to be beaten by less than three lengths in allowance company at Presque Isle Downs.
Business is up substantially midway through Monmouth Park's 50 day, $50 million meet.
The leading indicators - average attendance, ontrack handle, and total handle from all sources - show big increases through the first 24 days.
Monmouth cut back to a three-day schedule this year, running Friday through Sunday plus holiday cards on Memorial Day and Independence Day. The figures are matched against the first 24 last year, excluding the Wednesday and Thursday cards that were eliminated from this year's schedule.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Madman Diaries is back at Woodbine, and that's bad news for the four other 2-year-olds who face him in Saturday's $150,000 Colin Stakes.
Trained and bred by Wesley Ward, who also is a part-owner, Madman Diaries was a 9 3/4-length winner of a 4 1/2-furlong maiden race in his local bow May 9. Six weeks later, Madman Diaries doubled up in the five-furlong Victoria, with a winning margin of nine lengths.
WHO'S HOT
As track announcer Dan Loiselle noted, Plymouth Bay's triumph in the ninth race July 10 was the fourth winner on the card sired by two-time Santa Anita Handicap winner Milwaukee Brew, who was moved to Gardiner Farm in Ontario last fall. Milwaukee Brew could be a force on the local scene for years to come when his Ontario-sired progeny make it to the races.
HOLLOW GOLD CUP
exposed the West Coast handicap division as a feeble cast of pretenders. The pace dawdled, the final time for the 1 1/4 miles was a pathetic 2:03.31, and the winner was a horse who had failed to hit the board his last six main-track Grade 1's. It was a sorry race, indeed.
WHO'S HOT
Christophe Clement
It was a frustrating meet for the Paris-born trainer until July 8, when Balcazio ($8.70) kicked off a run of five consecutive winners to close out the next-to-last week of the stand, highlighted by Gio Ponti ($2.80) taking the Man o' War for the second straight year and thus ending a run of five losses since taking the 2009 Arlington Million.
A total of 64 horses have been pre-entered for the 12th annual Claiming Crown, the six-race, $500,000 series that will be run next Saturday, July 24, at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn.
Trainer Jamie Ness and his main client, Midwest Thoroughbreds, have the most pre-entries, with five and six, respectively.
Purses for the races, which are run under starter-allowance conditions, range from $50,000 to $150,000 for the main event, the Claiming Crown Jewel. Eight horses are pre-entered in the 1 1/8-mile Jewel.