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.
A spike in offtrack business helped Sunland Park in New Mexico achieve an increase of more than 5 percent in average daily handle during its 77-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that ended April 20.
Sunland handled an average $851,540 a day on its races from all sources, which was up from last season's average of $807,603. At sites offtrack, patrons bet an average $756,809 a day on Sunland, which was up 6 percent. Ontrack, an average $94,731 a day was bet on Sunland's races this meet, which was down 1 percent from last season.
Despite getting off to an extremely poor start, Gulfstream Park concluded its 2010 season on Saturday showing an increase in all-sources handle over the corresponding meet one year earlier.
After being down 13 percent in all-sources handle and 19 percent in ontrack handle after the opening month of the meet, Gulfstream Park rallied to close the 79-day session up 4.2 per cent in all-sources handle and down just less than 1 percent ontrack compared with the 2009 session.
He ranks fifth all-time in races and purse money won and has trained the Horse of the Year for the last three years. But trainer Steve Asmussen still gets excited about winning a trainer's title. Considering he had never won a title at a New York Racing Association meet before, perhaps the joy he displayed Monday morning was warranted.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Alexis Barba was on the first leg of a flight from Los Angeles to Louisville when her stable won its richest prize of the year in Saturday's $200,000 Snow Chief Stakes.
Alphie's Bet, who was considered for Saturday's Kentucky Derby until he finished sixth in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3, dominated the Snow Chief Stakes for statebred 3-year-olds, his second stakes win of the year.
"I'm sorry I missed it," Barba said from the Atlanta airport.
