Total handle for the five Breeders’ Cup races run on Friday was $42.31 million, according to charts of the races, up 12.7 percent over the five Breeders’ Cup races held at Keeneland Racecourse in Kentucky last year, despite a last-race incident that will potentially cost the game far more than the $5 million bump in wagering.
Knicks Go was cut out to be a good horse. As a 2-year-old in the fall of 2018, he won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
At 3, however, his performances ranged from decent to dismal. Eight starts netted zero wins.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mariah’s Princess earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure for an eye-catching victory Thursday at Churchill in her return from an eight-month layoff. Ridden by Martin Garcia, the 3-year-old Ghostzapper filly won a first-level allowance sprint by 6 1/4 lengths, going seven furlongs in 1:22.46.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The unbeaten Carribean Caper has been turned out in South Carolina for the rest of the year, along with the other top horses in the Al Stall Jr. barn.
Stall said he considered the upcoming Dream Supreme or Chilukki at Churchill Downs for Carribean Caper before recently sending her out with his two best turf runners, Dalika and In Good Spirits. They all have joined the 3-year-old Masqueparade, another one of Stall’s most productive performers this year, who already was at the Camden, S.C., training center of Frank Wooten.
“Old school,” said Stall.
DEL MAR, Calif. – At long last, Darrel McHargue this week received his plaque for induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
McHargue was voted in by the Historic Review Committee, and was set to be honored in 2020. But the entire ceremony was canceled owing to COVID-19.
Then this year, when the Hall of Fame ceremony acknowledged both the classes of 2020 and 2021, McHargue was unable to attend.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The 2-year-old colt Maglev, fifth in the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury Racecourse in England on Sept. 18, was purchased last month for approximately $415,000 at auction and is bound for the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 28.
By Galileo Gold, Maglev is scheduled to arrive in the middle of the month and will be trained by Mark Glatt. New co-owner Tim Cohen said a 2022 campaign is a long-term focus.
“We’ll see how things go when he comes over,” Cohen said. “He has a great body and has run against good horses over there.”
Jockey Rodney Prescott won the 4,000th Thoroughbred race of his career Thursday at Indiana Grand, when he guided We All See It to an 11 1/4-length victory in the fourth race.
The maiden special weight was for 2-year-olds at a mile. Prescott placed Well All See It just off the pace before the pair opened up on their rivals in the late stages.
Super High 5 bets offered on every race on the Friday and Saturday cards at Del Mar, including the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, will only pay out the pool on a perfect ticket and will roll over to the next race if there is no ticket with the winning combination, according to Breeders’ Cup.
There will be 46 stakes totaling $5.795 million in purses offered at the 2021-22 Aqueduct winter meet, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday.
The winter meet begins Dec. 9 and runs through March 27. Racing will be conducted four days a week through February and then three days a week in March, a schedule that has been in place the last several years. The only noteable change to the racing schedule is there is no live racing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but there will be a live card on Presidents Day (Feb. 21).
There is hope, still, for anyone crazy enough to continue in the niche profession of turf writing: Fausto Gutierrez has blazed a path out.
Yes, Gutierrez was a racing handicapper and writer for the Mexican newspaper Reforma off-and-on for about 10 years, starting while he was still a college student and lasting until he, ahem, saw the light.
