ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Total wagering from all sources was up 7.7 percent on live Thoroughbred racing at Woodbine this year, the Woodbine Entertainment Group announced Tuesday.
Total wagering on Woodbine races was $364,436,580(Can), compared with $338,349,020 last year.
The daily average handle, based on racing dates on which any live races were run, was $2,222,174 this year, compared with $2,026,042 in 2004, an increase of 9.7 percent.
Jockey Jerry Bailey said he intends to ride at least the first part of the Gulfstream Park meeting and refuted an Internet report that indicated he has reached a deal with ABC and ESPN to work as an analyst on their horse racing coverage.
Bailey, 48, has strongly hinted that he would retire at the end of this year. But on Tuesday, Bailey said he plans to ride when Gulfstream opens Jan. 4.
"I'm going to start riding at Gulfstream," Bailey said. "I don't know how long it's going to last."
The Illinois Racing Board on Tuesday granted the National Jockey Club permission to switch dark days next season.
The National Jockey Club, which now runs its spring meet at Hawthorne with the old Sportsman's Park having been closed, was dark Mondays and Tuesdays during 2005, but will race on those days and go dark Wednesday and Thursday next year. The NJC and Fairmount Park, which has a concurrent meet and also races Monday and Tuesday, will coordinate post times to avoid overlapping races.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Without grass racing, the Hollywood Park fall meeting has been a long, hard slog. But the meet ends on an uptick, with two excellent Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds highlighting a final weekend that closes with a special Monday card.
ALBANY, Calif. - Golden Gate Fields has completed its stakes schedule for the meeting, but Thursday's feature has the feel of a stakes race. Six of the seven fillies and mares entered in the 1 1/16-mile turf allowance race are stakes winners. Three are multiple stakes winners, and one is a graded winner. The $50,000 purse, plus Cal-bred incentives, is the same as for one of the overnight stakes on the Golden Gate calendar this fall.
The only thing missing for the winner is black type, and whoever wins the race probably deserves black type.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Mr. Jester, who won the first $1 million running of the Delta Jackpot in 2003, has been retired and sold for an undisclosed sum, his trainer, Steve Wren, said Tuesday.
Mr. Jester left his Louisiana Downs base for Wren's farm in Arkansas on Sunday, and is scheduled to head to Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., on Thursday.
His ultimate destination is Canada, said Wren, where he is expected to stand at stud in a deal orchestrated largely by Bruce Kline, president of Spendthrift. Mr. Jester is a son of Silver Deputy, who also stood in Canada.
MIAMI - As a 2-year-old, Vous appeared to be a turf horse with unlimited potential after winning the Hollywood Wildcat Stakes at Calder in her final start of the season. Vous returns here Thursday as a multiple graded-stakes-placed filly with
nearly $225,000 in her bank account but, incredibly, still in search of her first win since she captured the Hollywood Wildcat two years ago.
CHICAGO - The undefeated Last Gran Standing is set for Saturday's Jim Edgar Illinois Futurity after a strong six-furlong workout on Saturday at Hawthorne.
Last Gran Standing, unbeaten after three starts and a relatively easy winner of the $92,000 Sun Power Stakes in his most recent race, breezed six furlongs in 1:15 on Saturday, the fastest of six works at the distance. His trainer, Brian Williamson, caught the work
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The last week of racing before Aqueduct takes a nine-day holiday break begins Wednesday with a nine-race card highlighted by the $65,000 Randaroo Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs. The Randaroo was originally scheduled for last Friday, but that card was canceled due to a forecasted snowstorm.
Eight of the nine fillies scheduled to run last Friday were entered back while trainer Ben Perkins Jr. took advantage of the extra time to enter Carryanun, a sharp maiden winner over Aqueduct's main track on Nov. 6.
