ARCADIA, Calif. – This has been a record-breaking, or at least record-equaling, year of stakes wins in a single meeting at Santa Anita for jockey Flavien Prat and trainer Bob Baffert.
Monday, Country Grammer gave Baffert his 17th stakes win of the winter-spring meeting in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup, surpassing the record of 16 he set in the 1998-99 season.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In addition to the usual fare of ample wagering opportunities, there is a bevy of two-day wagers being offered this week.
There will be a two-day pick six that consists of Friday’s Grade 2 True North, Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup, and Grade 2 New York, and a trio of Grade 1 stakes Saturday, the Jaipur, Metropolitan Handicap, and Belmont Stakes.
That pick six will have a 20-cent base wager with a 15 percent takeout. The regular $1 pick six on Friday will be on the last six races, but the same wager on Saturday is on races 6-11.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Over the last year, Calumet Farm has won some of the biggest races on the New York Racing Association circuit, and at big prices, to boot.
Last August, Vexatious ($21) won the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga, beating champion Midnight Bisou. In December, True Timber ($16.60) pulled off a mild upset in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. In April, Bourbonic returned the biggest mutuel ($146.50) in the history of the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. Three weeks ago, Channel Cat scored a front-running upset ($18.40) in the Grade 1 Man o’ War at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While there has been a lot of discussion how the start of the Kentucky Derby impacted the performance of expected pacesetter Rock Your World, jockey Luis Saez believes his horse, Essential Quality, was also adversely impacted by the bump between those two horses leaving the starting gate.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A field of 10 older turf sprinters led by Carotari and Totally Boss is entered in the $110,000 Mighty Beau, which ends an 11-race Saturday card that precedes the simulcast of the Belmont Stakes.
The Mighty Beau goes at 5:58, nearly an hour before the Belmont.
There’s a good reason you don’t recognize the face and voice of the woman appearing on the Monmouth simulcast feed to express her opinions on upcoming races and their participants. This is Samantha Perry’s first job as a public-facing paddock host and handicapper.
The four-day opening race week of Monmouth Park’s 2021 season whipped past quicker than might have been expected.
There were no strikes or boycotts by jockeys and no in-running incidents during the 38-race week, the first race meeting in North America in which jockeys are not permitted to use whips for anything other than safety.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ed Vaughan arrived in Kentucky in November, ready for a fresh start. The 47-year-old Irish-born trainer had wearied of the difficult economics of the British racing industry and was willing to give American racing a go.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Belmont Stakes, trainer Doug O’Neill would rather think about what could be than what might have been.
On the day before the 2012 Belmont Stakes, O’Neill and owner Paul Reddam stood before a throng of reporters outside of Belmont Park’s Barn 1, explaining how Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another would be scratched from the Belmont and subsequently retired with a tendon injury.
A painful memory to be sure, it’s not something O’Neill dwells on.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Rebel’s Romance, the UAE Derby winner, was not entered in Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes after developing a hind leg infection, trainer Charlie Appleby confirmed Tuesday morning.
The defection of Rebel’s Romance left a field of eight for the Belmont Stakes, entries for which were to be drawn at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Appleby said that Rebel’s Romance has been treated for the infection by veterinarians at Belmont Park.
“He’s responding but not responding quick enough to get to the Belmont,” Appleby said.
