Fair Grounds Race Course, set to resume racing operations in New Orleans this November, will offer a record $7.7 million in stakes purses, the track announced Friday.
The stakes schedule includes 65 different stakes - also a record - and peaks with Louisiana Derby Day, March 10, which includes four Grade 2 races and $2.1 million in purse money. The Mervin Muniz Handicap, Fair Grounds' biggest race for older turf horses, has been moved up on the calendar to be part of Louisiana Derby Day.
After a 2005 meeting that produced a record in all-sources handle, Fairplex Park has added $300,000 to purses for its upcoming meeting at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, Calif., from Sept. 8-25.
The increase will result in higher purses for 15 of the meeting's 17 stakes.
The most significant increase is to the meeting's top race for older horses, the $125,000 Ralph Hinds Pomona Invitational Handicap at about 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 24. The race was worth $100,000 in 2005.
Jockeys Thomas Clifton and Ediberto Rodriguez were hospitalized with injuries sustained when their mounts fell during Thursday night's third race at Penn National Race Course.
Clifton, 37, the track's leading rider with 96 wins, broke his nose, collarbone, and several ribs. He also underwent a non-surgical procedure to halt internal bleeding caused by a lacerated liver.
Preakness winner Bernardini worked five furlongs in 1:03.48 Friday morning at Saratoga, his first breeze since he won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy by nine lengths on July 29. Bernardini is being pointed to the $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 26.
With exercise rider Simon Harris in the irons, Bernardini was timed in fractions of 26.29 seconds, 38.49 and he galloped out an extra furlongs in 12.92 seconds.
"He's come out of that race awesome," Harris said. "All we got to do is keep him the way he is now."
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - English Channel and Cacique have traded punches since May, their next exchange scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Arlington Park, but even if English Channel and Cacique are the two best American turf horses of the moment, they still may not be good enough to win the 24th .
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The gang's all here - or at least its leaders are.
Arguably the three best filly-mare turf horses in training in North America will converge at Arlington Park on Saturday for the Grade 1, $750,000 , making the race easily the most important in the division so far this year.
Honey Ryder, Film Maker, and Gorella are the principals in a terrific field of 11 in the 17th running of the Beverly D., which leads off the annual International Festival of Racing as the eighth of 12 Saturday races.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Showing Up has lost only once in his life, and bettors figure to make him the favorite to win his first Grade 1 race when he starts Saturday at Arlington in the $400,000 . Showing Up will face just five rivals: the decent colt Proudinsky; a pair of European shippers with possibilities, Ivan Denisovich and Primary; an apparently overmatched Niagara Causeway; and the obvious competition, Go Between.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - A third inspection of Arlington Park's main track has produced the same conclusion as the first two, namely that the track surface here is safe for racing despite an unusually high rate of catastrophic breakdowns earlier in the season.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Had English Channel remained here for the Sword Dancer Invitational on Saturday, Go Deputy likely would have been sent to Chicago by trainer Todd Pletcher for the Arlington Million, where he would have been a decided longshot. But with the Pletcher-trained English Channel, as well as Cacique, headed to Chicago, Go Deputy got to stay home. And instead of being an outsider, he will loom as one of the leading contenders in the Grade 1, $500,000 Sword Dancer.
