ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Alec Fehr headed down to Florida's Palm Meadows last December with a specific program in mind.
"With my potential good runners, I wanted to give them a chance to develop, and possibly have a Queen's Plate horse," said Fehr.
And while Fehr has been having his ups and downs lately, he still has Niagara Thunder on track for the June 22 Queen's Plate, with Sebastian's Song and Tacito scheduled to get another chance at proving they belong.
Although it's too early to establish any wagering trends in a season that is only 12 days old, Prairie Meadows had its fourth highest all-time wagering day Monday when more than $1.5 million was bet on the track's nine-race card. That number represents the highest Prairie handle in more than seven years.
Wagering on this year's Kentucky Derby also broke a record, as fans in central Iowa wagered $231,892 on the Derby.
Oaklawn Park's qualifying tournament for the Daily Racing Form/National Thoroughbred Racing Association National Handicapping Championship will be held two months earlier this year, on the weekend of June 14-15. The first three finishers will earn a fees-paid berth into the national final, which will be held in Las Vegas in January 2009.
Oaklawn's qualifier will have a purse of $25,000, with $10,000 going to the winner. The purse is based on 150 entries, Oaklawn spokesman Jason Milligan said.
Some new faces greeted a record crowd of 18,230 on Canterbury Park's opening day Saturday when the jockey colony was introduced to the fans.
Two who made a quick impression were Jason Lumpkins and Jose Betancourt, who each enjoyed multiple race wins on opening weekend.
Lumpkins captured three wins during the nine-race card Saturday, winning a statebred maiden contest aboard Sahan, then returning to win a claiming contest on Ski Dubai, and capping the day with an allowance win on Bailey Road. He returned Sunday to capture another maiden contest on Jayana.
Jockey Edgar Paucar won the riding title at Beulah Park for the sixth time since coming to the track in 2004. The 33-year-old Peruvian rider had 123 victories in the winter/spring meet and also recorded his 1,000th win recently. Paucar attended the famed Peru Jockey School that boasts Edgar Prado, Rafael Bejarano, and Miguel Mena as graduates.
Charlie Lawson won his second winter/spring meet training title in the last three years. Lawson, who trains his own horses, won 39 races, 14 more than Reid Gross.
State Fair Park in Lincoln, Neb., opens its 37-day meet Friday under the most uncertain of conditions. The track is located on the state fairgrounds, and the long-term future of racing in Nebraska's capital city is in limbo following the approval of legislation earlier this year that will move the state fairgrounds beginning in 2010 to Grand Island, where Fonner Park is located.
AUBURN, Wash. - Local fans got a taste on Sunday of what was a steady diet for patrons of Turf Paradise last winter when trainer Mike Chambers sent out his first two starters at the meeting. Chambers saddled the uncoupled entry of Nationhood and Chhaya Dance for the $50,000 Seattle Handicap at six furlongs, then watched them finish one-two. Nationhood held off the late charge of his stablemate to prevail by a neck under rider Ricky Frazier in 1:08.40.
Turf Paradise concluded its 2007-2008 meeting Sunday with a 4.8 percent overall increase in average daily handle on its live races, according to figures released by the track.
Turf Paradise averaged $1,462,999 daily in all-sources wagers on its races during its 153-day meet, compared with $1,395,468 during its 152-day 2006-07 stand.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Time has nearly expired for the long-familiar trainer-jockey combination of Bruce Headley and Alex Solis. Headley confirmed Tuesday that Solis is no longer first-call rider for the stable, and that David Flores will replace Solis on Street Boss when the improving sprinter makes his stakes debut Saturday in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Monmouth Park opens for its 63rd season Friday, a scheduling wrinkle that is a throwback to an earlier era.
In recent seasons, Monmouth ran only on Saturdays and Sundays in May before switching to a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule in June.
Fridays have been added this year, expanding the May weekends to three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
According to vice president and general manager Bob Kulina, a Friday opener is not unprecedented. Friday openers were a staple at Monmouth before the reopening of Garden State Park in the early 1980s.