In an executive order issued Thursday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm abolished the Office of Racing Commissioner and placed the regulation of horse racing in the hands of the state's Gaming Control Board. The board's executive director, Richard Kalm, will take over the duties now performed by commissioner Paticia Lockwood on Jan. 17.
The gaming board was established in 1997 to oversee Detroit's three casinos, which were built after voters' approval in 1996.
Churchill Downs is scrapping its short-lived experiment of sponsoring an overseas challenge. The Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes, which was run last March at Kempton Park in England with an automatic Derby berth going to the winner, will not be renewed in 2010 after being offered for just one year.
Snazzyboy ($29.70) upset heavily favored Mr. Shadar in the $49,000 Three Year Old Sales Stakes for 3-year-old colts and geldings at Northlands Park on Friday night.
With Rickey Walcott in the irons, Snazzyboy dueled with Wired Two Twenty for the first half-mile. After disposing of Wired Two Twenty and leading briefly, he was tackled my Mr. Shadar on the stretch turn. They battled it out until Snazzboy started to pull away inside the sixteenth pole to win by three-quarters of a length.
ARCADIA, Calf. - Just for kicks, let's say your pick six ticket is 5-for-5 going into the final leg, a maiden sprint for 2-year-olds.
How many horses does your ticket need to win the jackpot? The correct answer, of course, is "all." But with 10 entrants, "all" is cost-prohibitive.
Get My Fix is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for good reason. Runner-up in two straight at Del Mar, the Brian Koriner trainee finished second last time in a productive race.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland opened its 17-day fall meet Friday afternoon by producing at least a few starters for the Nov. 6-7 Breeders' Cup when Negligee posted a 12-1 upset in the .
Negligee, giving jockey Rajiv Maragh his third win of the card, wore down favored She Be Wild to win the $500,000 Alcibiades by a half-length. Amen Hallelujah was another 2 1/4 lengths back in a field of 12 2-year-old fillies, with Zilva fourth and Beautician fifth. The winner returned $27.40 and is "absolutely" headed to the BC Juvenile Fillies, said trainer John Terranova.
Turfway Park closed its 22-day fall meet with more discouraging news, as the Florence, Ky., track saw all-sources handle drop by 6 percent over corresponding 2008 dates while ontrack handle fell even further.
The all-sources handle was $39,928,281, down from from the $42.6 million bet during the same 22-day time frame last fall, while the ontrack handle of $2.2 million was down 16 percent from last year. Attendance is free and therefore not officially tracked.
The North American Graded Stakes Committee has decided that the Oct. 3 running of the Robert F. Carey Memorial Handicap at Hawthorne will not be recorded as a Grade 3 stakes.
As per committee rules, the Carey was automatically downgraded from Grade 3 to ungraded when it was moved from turf to dirt. The Committee then reviews off-the-turf races on a case-by-case basis, and in this instance, elected to uphold the automatic downgrading. The decision affects only the race's 2009 edition.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Bob Barbara is hoping he's going to need to find someone who can interpret Japanese for him.
After speaking with officials from the Japan Racing Association this week, Barbara is hopeful that Interpatation, upset winner of the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational on Oct. 3, is going to receive an invite to the $5.6 million Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 29.
