After going 31 consecutive cards without being won, the pick seven was won Friday at Woodbine, returning a track-record $553,166 to one ticket-holder in Vancouver, British Columbia, who spent $144.
The pick seven carryover going into the card was $352,808, and $271,869 was bet into it Friday.
Delaware Park ended it 2006 meet last Sunday with declines in both ontrack and offtrack handle on its live races, according to a release the track issued Friday.
The total all-sources handle on Delaware's races declined 2.9 percent for the 135-day meet this year, to a daily average of $1,691,582. Ontrack handle dropped 7.5 percent, while outside handle on Delaware races was down 2.5 percent. The track attributed the declines to fewer starters per card "due to excessive late scratches."
MIAMI - For those grass specialists who may find next Saturday's Grade 3 My Charmer and Tropical Turf handicaps too far or simply too tough, Sunday's Pass the Line Stakes presents a nice alternative. A field of 11, including the hard-knocking mare Formal Miss, has entered the 7 1/2-furlong Pass the Line, which is one of two stakes offered on Sunday's card at Calder, along with the $45,000 Radar Love at 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - It's been a frustrating year for all factions of the British Columbia racing industry. Although Hastings received approval from the Vancouver city council to install slot machines back in 2004, there still are no signs that the slots will be up and running anytime soon.
Because purses this year were based on projected slot revenue that never came, there was a 20 percent purse cut in October.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After a horrible trip and questionable ride cost Premium Tap all chance in the Kentucky Cup Classic, trainer John Kimmel and jockey Kent Desormeaux were the epitome of dejection and frustration.
But after Premium Tap got a perfect trip and textbook ride Friday in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, the colt responded with a breathtaking triumph, leading to elation and jubilation, with Kimmel and Desormeaux exchanging hugs and high-fives in the Churchill Downs winner's circle.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Laguna Beach has been a pleasant development for trainer Dennis Patterson.
Strong-minded when she arrived in his barn earlier this year, she has, Patterson said, "mellowed out," and has won her last three sprint tries.
She is a contender in Sunday's feature, a $62,500 optional claimer at five furlongs on the turf. Six fillies and mares are entered, including three stakes winners: Light My Ducks, Swingn' Notes, and Cinderella Liberty. Cut the Mustard and Apollonesian round out the field.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Financingavailable, the leading older filly or mare at Woodbine, will try to bolster her already strong case for a Sovereign Award in Sunday's $150,000 Bessarabian Stakes.
Financingavailable has registered 4 victories and 3 second-place finishes in 7 starts this year, all in stakes, for earnings of $370,000. She had a three-race win streak going, which ended when she narrowly lost the Oct. 28 River Memories Stakes, which was taken off the grass and run on Polytrack.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Patrick Biancone never said this was forever.
"I'm just talking about this winter," said Biancone. "Not every winter."
Biancone knows as well as anyone that Julien Leparoux might well have already outgrown Turfway Park, but when Biancone said he needed Leparoux to ride primarily this winter at Turfway - where more than four straight months of live racing begins Sunday - there were no questions asked.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Malibu Mint was handed a controversial victory by the stewards in Friday's Grade 2, $150,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct.
Rahys' Appeal, a 23-1 longshot in the scratched-reduced six-horse field, rallied past Malibu Mint in midstretch and finished three lengths in front of that rival at the wire. But the whip of Alan Garcia, the rider of Rahys' Appeal, inadvertently struck Malibu Mint, under Eibar Coa, around the eighth pole. Coa lodged an objection and the stewards disqualified Rahys' Appeal from first and placed her second.
The racing-surface revolution resumes Sunday at Turfway Park when the Florence, Ky., track opens for more than four straight months of live racing. On Sept. 7, 2005, Turfway was the first North American racetrack to employ Polytrack as its primary racing surface, and as the number of tracks doing the same continues to proliferate, the braintrust at Turfway grows ever prouder of the precedent they set.
"Polytrack met every expectation last winter, and we expect this winter to be just as successful," said Turfway's president, Bob Elliston.