Lee Wagner, who owned and operated the popular Wagner's pharmacy and 1950s-style eatery just outside the Churchill Downs stable gate, died Saturday at age 70 in hospice care in Louisville, Ky., after suffering from diabetes.
Wagner, a pharmacist and occasional horse owner, befriended innumerable horsemen from the United States and beyond. His place of business is filled with autographed Kentucky Derby memorabilia.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hollywood Park failed to keep pace with a record 2007 spring-summer meeting this year, showing a decline of nearly 2 percent in all-sources handle at the corresponding meeting that ended on Sunday, according to preliminary figures.
The track announced that the 60-day meeting had an average all-sources handle of $11,783,585, which included ontrack wagering, inter-track wagering in California, account wagering, and handle from interstate locations. The average handle was down 1.8 percent over the record handle of $11.9 million in 2007.
Trainer Lloyd Mason has heard the old expression that there are a million ways to lose a race and only one way to win one.
He doesn't know which number having the leader veer into the rail is, but he does know he's very lucky that Cross Fire is still in one piece after the 2-year-old colt ducked in sharply and somersaulted over the rail in Saturday's Solano County Juvenile Stakes at the Solano County Fair. Cross Fire's rider, David Lopez, also came out of the race uninjured.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - In the seasons before Arlington's Polytrack era, the Kentucky-based trainer Rusty Arnold used to be a rare participant in Chicago. Before last year, Arnold's career mark here stood at 5 wins in 18 starts. But Arnold's home base is Keeneland's Polytrack, which has led to greater participation at this meet (24 starts so far this season), and on Saturday, Arnold's owners took home the trophies from two graded stakes races.
DEL MAR, Calif. - From a training standpoint, Del Mar's new Polytrack surface received largely favorable reviews last summer. It was as a racing surface that opinions were as divided as the Red Sea.
Trainers complained their horses were not handling the surface, and that it was leading to soft-issue injuries. Jockeys complained that their horses struggled over the surface. Handicappers found the race results baffling, since a long-standing fundamental like pace became obsolete. How a horse handled the track was paramount.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Dance Hall Days showed a lot of heart in her stakes debut, winning the $70,000 Serena's Song for 3-year-old fillies Sunday at Monmouth Park.
Her neck win, which came after battling between and through rivals, might be enough to send her to the meet's top event for the division: the Grade 3, $150,000 Monmouth Oaks on Aug. 9.
The Serena's Song was the second straight win for Dance Hall Days, both at Monmouth. She has blossomed this summer for trainer Tony Dutrow.
DEL MAR, Calif. - From 1997 through 2003, Bob Baffert won seven straight training titles, a Del Mar record, and from 1996 through 2002, Baffert won the Del Mar Futurity seven straight times, another record. The glare at Del Mar wasn't just coming from the sand on the nearby beach. It was coming off the top of Baffert's shiny, white-haired dome every time he stepped into the winner's circle.
New York invaders Sailor's Cap and Gio Ponti were among the nine 3-year-olds entered Monday in the $750,000 Virginia Derby, a Grade 2 turf race that will be run Saturday for the 11th time at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va.
Sailor's Cap, owned by Team Valor International and trained by Jimmy Toner, was a runaway winner of the June 21 Colonial Turf Cup, the local prep for the 1 1/4-mile Virginia Derby. Alan Garcia, who rode him for the first time in that 6 3/4-length triumph, will be back aboard Saturday.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Richard Migliore will relocate to Saratoga for the rest of the summer after riding at Del Mar through Monday, he said over the weekend.
Migliore said his decision to return to his native New York later this month is based largely on the needs of his family, which is based in New York. He said they would not be able to travel to California for the summer.
"They can't spend as much time out here," he said. "I have some people I can ride for" at Saratoga.
Joel Rosario can count on two hands, with a finger to spare, his number of winners at Del Mar in 2007.
"I rode longshot horses, not so good horses," he remembers.
Last year, Rosario was an anonymous jockey at the most popular meeting in California. This year, he will be at the center of attention.