The New York Racing Association will introduce uniform pricing for clubhouse and grandstand reserved seats at Saratoga in 2006.
In the past, NYRA had two price levels in both areas. The new policy means one price for all clubhouse seats and one price for all grandstand seats.
"We decided to take a two-tier pricing system and simplify it," said Jerry Davis, NYRA's director of admissions and parking.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Phil Serpe was very pleased with Rousing Victory's second-place finish Saturday in Aqueduct's Grade 2 .
No horse in the race was a match for King's Drama, a Grade 1 winner who was using the Red Smith as a tuneup for the Japan Cup.
King's Drama coasted to a 2 1/2-length win as the 3-5 favorite.
Rousing Victory rallied three wide on the final turn and continued gamely through the lane to earn the place spot in the 1 3/8-mile race, the final graded turf stakes of the year in New York.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The $48,000 allowance feature at Aqueduct on Wednesday came up very tough for a midweek race.
The second-level allowance at one mile drew a field of 10, including four who have won their last start. Nine have earned career-best Beyer Speed Figures of 91 or better.
was one of those last-out winners, posting a career-best 91 Beyer when he won at Monmouth Park in early September. A 3-year-old gray colt, Dance Quiet has two wins and a second in his last four starts, all at Monmouth for trainer Mark Hennig.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - What goes around apparently does come around. Four weeks before he won the only graded turf race for 3-year-old fillies at the Churchill Downs fall meet, the Grade 2 , veteran jockey Robby Albarado endured one of the most heart-breaking losses of his career in the same division: the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Keeneland.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Carl Bowman long has been known as the strong-but-silent type, but in recent years, the veteran trainer has been rather quiet in the wrong category: races won.
But silence was supplanted by strength Saturday when Bowman sent out a pair of long-priced winners at his home track, Churchill Downs. Red Cherries Spin, a first-time starter, led all the way to easily win the third race at a $38.80 mutuel, and Forth and Forever was up in a long drive to narrowly win the sixth race at $29.40.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Owner-trainer Dave Cotey has been resurgent at Woodbine recently, racking up a triple last Friday and compiling a record of 4-2-0 from his last six starters.
And, after a day of rest Sunday, Cotey figures to be front and center again Wednesday with solid contenders for the co-featured 2-year-old allowance races on the nine-race program.
One Quiet Cat, a Kentucky-bred who was a 3 1/2-length winner for a $40,000 claiming tag last time out, comes back at the same six-furlong distance in the evening's first race.
Trainer Morris Nicks means business when he ships to Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.
In the last year, he has started just one horse at the track, and the filly, Countryfide, won the $50,000 Yellow Rose during the 2004 edition of Texas Champions Day. Prior to that race, the only other career start Nicks had made at Sam Houston was during the track's first season in 1994, when he sent out Groovy Jett to win the $40,000 Intercoastal.
ALBANY, Calif. - Art Sherman might have run the two best fillies in Sunday's $57,125 Piedmont Stakes, winning with Talverna and finishing fifth with Brahms Allegro.
Talverna was the second 2-year-old homebred filly to win for Jerry and Ann Moss last week. On Friday, Ruttina scored a $40,000 starter allowance win for them.
"This filly was still eligible for the first [allowance] condition," Sherman said after Talverna sat behind a three-way battle for the lead, rallied wide into the stretch, put away the pacesetters, and then held off Seam Seeker by a head.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Josie Carroll has had a difficult time finding dances for Ballroom Deputy at Woodbine this year.
But Ballroom Deputy found herself with plenty of partners in Saturday's Grade 3, $210,100 Maple Leaf Stakes and took advantage of the occasion to record her first career stakes victory.
CHICAGO - Fairmount Park is not open for racing at the moment, and even when it is, not a whole lot of people outside the region tend to notice. The small track - formerly known as Cahokia Downs - that sits on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metro area is mired in a cycle of low purses and problematic handle trends.
