HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Michael Yates sends out favored Alecka Star in an allowance race Friday at Gulfstream. At least he won’t have to deal with any horses from trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn in that race.
The Pletcher stable dealt Yates’s top 3-year-old prospect Dean Delivers a half-length defeat here last Saturday in the Grade 3 Swale with My Prankster. Four weeks earlier, Pletcher’s undefeated Dean’s List bested Dean Delivers by a neck.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Mark Casse sent out Flameaway to lower the stakes mark four years ago in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. The Hall of Fame trainer wouldn’t mind having one of his three runners in Saturday’s running of the Davis become similarly successful.
Flameaway won more than $900,000 and five stakes from 18 starts. Perhaps his most memorable accomplishment was his 2018 Davis triumph when he sped 1 1/16 miles in a stakes record 1:42.44.
Emerald Downs has announced the hiring of Bill Downes as track announcer for its 2022 live racing season, which begins May 15.
Downes succeeds Tom Harris, who recently stepped down to spend more time with his family.
A Chicago native, Downes brings extensive announcing experience to Emerald Downs. He served as Indiana Grand track announcer from 2013 to 2021, and before that called races at Ellis Park, Beulah Park, Presque Isle Downs, and River Downs. He also was back-up announcer at Churchill Downs.
The Louisiana Premier Day card was missing a key player Saturday at Delta Downs in Underpressure, who twice has won the Championship and who is a past winner of the Prince Stakes. Underpressure was intended for the $150,000 Championship this year after running second in both the Gold Cup in October at Delta and the track’s allowance prep on Nov. 19. But bruised feet knocked him out of the race, trainer Chris Richard said Monday.
Grade 2 winner Cilla is poised to return to open company following her Saturday victory in the $100,000 Louisiana Premier Matron at Delta Downs.
Trainer Brett Brinkman said Monday that the multiple stakes winner has options at Oaklawn Park and Keeneland. She is based at Fair Grounds.
“We’re going to keep her sprinting, and our objective is to try to get a couple of more graded stakes wins or graded stakes-placings behind her if possible,” said Brinkman, who trains Cilla for Dale Ladner.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas is excited about the future of Secret Oath and believes the recent winner of the Martha Washington Stakes at Oaklawn Park has the potential to be a “very, very special filly.”
Secret Oath picked up 10 points for the Kentucky Oaks for her 7 1/4-length win in the 1 1/16-mile race on Jan. 29. One start prior, she won a no-conditions allowance by 8 1/4 lengths at Oaklawn.
Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., has reached an agreement to sell 40 acres of its property to a company that intends to build an amphitheater at the location, a project that would result in a reconfiguration of the track’s backside and the demolition and construction of barns.
John Dooley has been named track announcer at Horseshoe Indianapolis Racing and Casino, the racetrack formerly called Indiana Downs and, more recently, Indiana Grand.
The position became available when longtime race-caller Bill Downes left the track after the 2021 racing season. Dooley is available because his usual summer place of employment, Arlington International Racecourse, won’t host a race meet in 2022, if ever again. Dooley is the longtime race commentator at Fair Grounds, where he currently is calling.
Pity the Fair Grounds clocking crew.
An extended spell of cold, wet weather last week backed up workout schedules and led to a deluge of breezes after the Fair Grounds dirt track had dried Sunday and Monday. A total of 142 horses posted workouts Monday, which was nothing compared to Sunday, when 295 workers made the Fair Grounds tab. Track officials and local observers speculated that Sunday was the busiest work day in modern Fair Grounds history.
