LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Endorsement was declared out of the 136th Kentucky Derby after being injured in his final pre-race workout Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs.
Endorsement, owned by WinStar Farm and trained by Shannon Ritter, suffered a non-displaced lateral condylar fracture of the right front ankle, according to Dr. Bo Landry, the attending veterinarian.
Betting on the Hawthorne spring meet that ended Sunday held steady from 2009, something like a victory in the current economic climate.
Total average daily handle increased by 2 percent during 2010's 44-day meet, improving to $2,031,710 compared with $1,990,306 during 2009's 38-day season, according to figures provided by Hawthorne. Out-of-state betting on Hawthorne races, up 3.5 percent from $1.645 million to $1.703 million, drove the overall increase, with ontrack betting on live races down 13 percent, from $117,115 last year to $101,473.
Indiana Downs was forced to shorten the distance of its last two Thoroughbred races and cancel three Quarter Horse races Monday evening due to mechanical problems with the backup truck that pulls the starting gate. The primary truck is undergoing repairs for mechanical problems.
The seventh was an allowance race scheduled to be run at a mile and 70 yards with a field of six. One horse was scratched due to the change of distance to six furlongs.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Bob Baffert has been hot on the road. Mythical Power gave the trainer his sixth stakes win in the Mid-South region in the last two months on Saturday, when he was up by a neck in the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park.
"That was fun," said Baffert, who is based in Southern California.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Jeremy Noseda may have been the last participant to arrive for Saturday's 136th Kentucky Derby, but his decision to send Awesome Act to Churchill Downs earlier than planned has resulted in an eruption of confidence in the rest of his connections.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jack Conway is the attorney general for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He is running neck-and-neck in a heated primary race among Democrats for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated this year by Republican Jim Bunning. He has a 9-month-old daughter at home in Louisville. And he is a 50 percent owner of Stately Victor, a starter in the 136th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
"No, I haven't been getting much sleep lately," said a smiling Conway, obligatory coffee cup in hand after conducting an early-morning television interview Tuesday on the Churchill Downs backstretch.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Much of the speculation about the Kentucky Oaks has focused on who isn't running rather than who is. So when Devil May Care was missing from the draw Tuesday morning, assessment of the race shape could finally begin in earnest.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Tuesday dawned rainy, damp, and cold at Churchill Downs, the fifth consecutive morning horsemen here were greeted to a wet track in one form or another during training hours.
The spate of wet weather has altered many training schedules over the past week. Rick Dutrow opted early Tuesday to scrap a scheduled work for Homeboykris, although colleagues Bob Baffert and Jeremy Noseda forged ahead as planned, sending out Conveyance and Awesome Act to breeze immediately after the renovation break when the racetrack was officially listed as muddy by track clockers.
All-sources handle for the six-day race meet at Atlantic City Race Course in New Jersey was up 19.5 percent compared with the all-sources figure for a six-day meet last year, according to figures provided by the track.
Total handle was $3,894,822, compared with $3,259,953 last year, for an average of $649,137 per day this year, compared with an average of $543,326 last year. Ontrack handle was up 24.2 percent, according to racing officials, and out-of-state handle increased 18 percent, from $2,488,710 last year to $2,937,074 this year.
