Trainer David Anderson finished last weekend on a high note when he sent out Vontz to win the last race on Sunday. The win was the 1,500th of his career, which began in 1984.
Anderson has won the training titles at Fonner Park and Lincoln this year and is poised for a second consecutive sweep of the meets on the Nebraska racing circuit. His 64 training wins on the season puts him in the top 50 nationally.
Hoist Her Flag, one of the very first horses inducted into the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame, was euthanized on Monday at the age of 25 due to the effects of melanoma. A gray daughter of Aferd produced from the Beauquillo mare Sue La Con, Hoist Her Flag will be remembered by many Minnesota racing fans as this track's first "big horse."
Meadow Dancer's win in the Colorado Stallion Stakes on Monday resulted in some unusual wagering numbers on a long race day at Arapahoe Park.
The $266,914 amount bet on the Stallion Stakes by far exceeded the amount bet on any individual 10-race program this meet. Of that total, $244,942 was wagered to show on Meadow Dancer, which resulted in a minus show pool of $65,021. Meadow Dancer returned $2.60, $2.20, and $2.20.
The resurgence that Remington Park in Oklahoma City has experienced since opening a casino in November 2005 is expected to continue during the 69-date meet that opens Thursday night.
Purses are budgeted at a record $185,000 a day. New stables have come in from Kentucky. The purse for the Oklahoma Derby has been returned to its highest level, $300,000. And there will be Sunday afternoon racing for the first time since 2004.
"By all signs, it ought to be the best meet we've ever had," said Scott Wells, vice president and general manager of Remington.
They are lining up for the Lyrique. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies at Louisiana Downs will not be run until Aug. 18, but already a number of promising runners in the region are being considered for the race. The Lyrique has a purse of $75,000 and serves as a first look at the candidates for the division's richest race of the meet, the $200,000 Marie P. DeBartolo Oaks on Sept. 22.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The $1 million Haskell Invitational for 3-year-olds on Sunday tops the biggest day of racing this summer at Monmouth Park.
Haskell Day annually draws the biggest crowd of the year, and a solid supporting stakes lineup offers fans an array of interesting handicapping puzzles.
In addition to the Grade 1 Haskell, the card includes a pair of Grade 3, $150,000 turf stakes: the Oceanport for 3-year-olds and up, and the Matchmaker for fillies and mares.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Noe Garcia, the groom for Lava Man who lost his left arm in a car accident last week, has been released from Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla and is back home in Los Angeles, but still faces months of rehabilitation. In an effort to help him, several people - including trainer Doug O'Neill, his brother, Dennis, Lava Man's owners Steve Kenly and Jason Wood, and owner Paul Reddam - have organized a fundraiser for Garcia designed to raise money to help him acquire and learn to use a prosthetic arm.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As the field left the backstretch in last Saturday's Go for Wand Handicap, Ermine was in perfect stalking position along the rail to earn her second career Grade 1 victory. Instead, she retreated steadily through the final three furlongs, ultimately finishing sixth and last, much to the disappointment of trainer Ronnie Werner, who did not have to wait long to discover the reason for the sub-par effort.
The leaders in the 3-year-old division are gradually returning to the races after a mid-summer hiatus, and on Saturday 10 second-tier 3-year-olds will try to move up in the standings in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Race Track.
The field includes Delightful Kiss, the Ohio Derby winner and likely favorite, and four horses who ran in this year's Kentucky Derby - Sam P. (ninth), Dominican (11th), Zanjero (12th), and Bwana Bull (15th).