The $200,000 Zia Park Distance Championship and the $150,000 Zia Park Derby are the most prestigious Thoroughbred stakes that will be run during Zia Park's mixed meet that opens Sept. 11. The 53-date season, which also features races for Quarter Horses, extends to Dec. 7.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Purses for lower-level claiming horses will rise at Del Mar this summer, but prize money for maiden special weight and allowance races will be lower than last year.
Del Mar officials on Thursday released the condition book for the first two weeks of the meeting, from July 21 to Aug. 1, detailing the type of races, distances, and prize money available.
Director of racing Tom Robbins said the decision to raise purses for cheap claimers was done in an effort to curtail the exodus of such horses to Eastern tracks with higher prize money.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Tom Albertrani has had to come up with yet another plan for his Grade 1-winning turf filly Gozzip Girl. Unfortunately, it no longer includes the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga on July 31.
An allowance race Albertrani was hoping to run Gozzip Girl in was part of Wednesday's Belmont card, which was canceled due to extreme heat. That same race failed to fill for Saturday and Sunday, when it was brought back as an extra race.
The second of this week's two Iowa Stallion Stakes, dedicated to progeny of stallions whose shares were donated to the Iowa Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders' Association stallion service auction, will be run Saturday at Prairie Meadows.
Six 3-year-olds will compete at a mile and 70 yards for a purse of $81,840. The base purse of $60,000 is bolstered by an additional $21,840 in Iowa-bred supplements, since all of the starters were bred in Iowa.
The durable 9-year-old gelding Catlaunch goes for his third straight stakes win when he matches strides over nine furlongs with nine Ohio-bred rivals in the $50,000 George Lewis Memorial at Thistledown.
Catlaunch has won 3 of his 5 races this year, including the Gendelman Memorial at River Downs and the Michael F. Rowland Memorial at Thistledown in his last two.
For a horse that came close to never being foaled, Catlaunch has put together an amazing record of 32-15-9 from 77 starts for earnings of $782,054.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Eric Coatrieux's days as a private trainer for Chiefswood Stable have come to an end.
Coatrieux, who began his first full-fledged training gig for Chiefswood's Robert and Mark Krembil in 2002, will be looking to launch a public stable, which he said he hopes will be based at Woodbine.
"I'm in the process of contacting owners I know and will try to find some new clients, as well," said Coatrieux, who will attend the upcoming yearling sales at Keeneland as part of that plan.
Change and survive. That's the mode Ellis Park continues to find itself in, with the 2010 summer meet starting Saturday amid the familiar call for alternative gaming and a pared-down racing schedule.
Ellis will race just 27 days on a Friday-through-Sunday schedule, and there are only four stakes on the docket, led by the lone graded race of the meet, the Grade 3, $100,000 Gardenia on Aug. 14. The abbreviated schedule is a sign of the times and one of the unwanted alterations often cited by track owner Ron Geary in his frequent pleas for slots at Kentucky racetracks.
With most of the focus on the two queens of racing − Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra − little attention has been paid this year to the reigning king of the turf, Gio Ponti.
For Gio Ponti's connections, that may be a good thing. After winning champion turf horse and champion older male honors in 2009, Gio Ponti is winless in three starts in 2010. He has lost five consecutive races since capturing , which had been his fourth consecutive Grade 1 victory. But that was 11 months ago.
WHO'S HOT
Queen's Plate-winning trainer Nick Gonzalez went 5 for 8 during the week of June 30-July 4 and vaulted into a tie for fourth in the standings with 19 wins. Leading trainer Mark Casse was 4 for 20 and has 32 wins from 203 starters.
Other hot trainers included Nick DeToro (2 for 2), Marty Drexler (2 for 3), and Mike DePaulo (2 for 4).
WHO'S HOT
After an uncharacteristically dry patch, trainer Scott Volk won with 3 of 9 starters between July 2-5, and he is in sixth place in the trainer standings, with seven wins from 35 starts.
Todd Pletcher also won three races over that stretch, including the $100,000 Choice Stakes with Fantastico Roberto and the Grade 3 Jersey Shore with Discreetly Mine. John Velazquez rode both horses and finished the holiday weekend with five wins from 15 mounts.
