Tampa Bay Downs, which was to open for a 94-day meet Saturday, reached agreements on Friday for its signal to be carried on all four major account-wagering platforms, averting the kind of blackout that has affected race meets around the country this year.
The agreements will allow Television Games Network, Twinspires.com, Youbet, and XpressBet to take wagers on Tampa's races.
Calder Race Course has canceled the three remaining stakes on its 2008-09 schedule, citing the continuing overpayment of purses during the current Tropical at Calder meet.
The three stakes - the $100,000 Stage Door Betty and $100,000 Frances Genter on Dec. 27 and the $100,000 Tropical Park Derby on New Year's Day - were all Grade 3 events.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - The $189,200 Southern California Derby at Los Alamitos on Sunday is the final major race of the year at the famed Quarter Horse track. From trainer Scott Willoughby's perspective, the Southern California Derby is the start of the 2009 season.
Willoughby is convinced that Thinking First, the colt he starts in the 400-yard race, can not only win on Sunday, but show that he will play a major role in the older horse division next year.
"I think he'll be one of our best horses next year," Willoughby said.
Israel Ocampo has moved his tack to Sunland Park from Hawthorne Race Course and is one of a handful of new faces at the New Mexico meet that opened on Friday. He will be riding some horses for trainer Jeff Mullins, who is racing a division at Sunland for the first time. His agent is Nick Canani, who has recently given up training to take Ocampo's book at Sunland.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - By the Light is 4 for 5 in races run at six furlongs. And since the only horse to beat her at that distance, Indian Blessing, is not entered in Sunday's $65,000 Foil Stakes at Aqueduct, By the Light looks well positioned to make it 5 for 6 at the sprint distance.
Brandon Meier has always been the racetrack equivalent of a gym rat. Tailing his father, jockey Randy Meier, from barn to barn on summer mornings in Chicago, Meier compiled a set of memories that he will always treasure, even as he has embarked on his own successful career as a jockey.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though Tin Cup Chalice finished a disappointing 13th in the Japan Cup Dirt last weekend, trainer and part-owner Michael Lecesse said he was glad he made the trip.
"It was a great experience, I'd love to do it again," Lecesse said Thursday from his home in Farmington, N.Y. The Japan Racing Association, he said, "is great - everything they do is second to none. They really know how to take care of their horsemen, their racing surface. The racing program is beautiful. They bet $160 million in the one race."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fearing a downturn in mutuel handle because of poor economic conditions, Santa Anita has cut overnight purses by approximately 10 percent for its winter-spring meeting that begins Dec. 26.
The purse reduction is the latest in a string of stinging cuts for Southern California horsemen in recent months. During the summer, Del Mar cut purses. At the current Hollywood Park meeting, purses were cut before the meeting began Oct. 29 and twice since.
Fair Grounds Race Course canceled its Thursday racing program because of a rare New Orleans snowstorm. Snow began falling Thursday morning, causing training to be halted after the regular renovation break, and shortly after 10 a.m., track officials decided to scrap the afternoon's race card.
A Fair Grounds press release said that a combination of the weather itself and its effect on the racing surface spurred the cancellation.
"Safety, both for equine and humans, is always going to take first priority," said Fair Grounds president Austin Miller.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - There will be a little West Virginia flavor added to this weekend's stakes races at Aqueduct.
Researcher, a 4-year-old gelded son of Two Smart, will bring a three-race winning streak into Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Queens County Handicap. Meanwhile, Julie B, who has earned more than $800,000 in a career spent mostly at Charles Town, brings a three-race win streak of her own into Sunday's $75,000 Ladies Handicap.