The racing surface at Prairie Meadows has become uneven in certain parts of the track's six-furlong chute. The problem forced three six-furlong races on Tuesday to be switched to 5 1/2 furlongs.
Riders have complained of a dip in the racing surface, on approximately the four inside paths, for the past several weeks. The track has repeatedly added material to the affected area, but the problem has reappeared.
It would have been a fitting tribute to a longtime pillar of the racing community at Charles Town if Hello Out There had been able to win the ninth race on July 28.
Hello Out There, a 3-year-old gelding owned by the Taylor Mountain Farm founded by James W. and Eleanor Casey, raced only hours after 73-year-old Eleanor Casey died of a heart attack. Although sent off as the 8-5 favorite, Hello Out There could only manage to finish fifth of six in the two-other-than allowance race.
Still flush from the success of the inaugural Louisiana Legends Night last Saturday, track officials this week announced a purse increase for the balance of the meeting, which runs through Sept. 24.
The eight statebred stakes that made up Louisiana Legends Night produced a big night not only locally, but also from a simulcast standpoint.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Bob Baffert has a mantra for Roman Ruler: Feet, don't fail me now.
It has a been a long, hard slog for Baffert with Roman Ruler. The 3-year-old colt's troublesome feet were a source of concern last summer at Del Mar, worsened this winter and spring at Santa Anita, and reached a low point when Roman Ruler finished last in the San Felipe Stakes in his first start of the year.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jeff Mullins is excited. Not only is he atop the Del Mar trainer standings after two weeks of the meet, but he believes stable star Choctaw Nation is continuing to progress as he heads toward the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 21.
Choctaw Nation defended his title in the San Diego Handicap on July 24, and on Tuesday at Del Mar he had his first work since that victory, a half-mile in 48.40 seconds. Amy Mullins, Jeff's wife, was aboard.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Don Leifeld is living his dream. After nurturing his D & L Trucking Company in Nebraska, he sold the business and decided to train the horses he owned.
Leifeld, 50, has now relocated to Southern California. He is based out of Santa Anita, but on Thursday he will be at Del Mar with the best horse in his barn, the 6-year-old mare Siphon Honey, who looks like the one to beat in the day's featured seventh race, a $61,000, second-level allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs for older fillies and mares.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Off to a hot start at Saratoga, including a thrilling victory by Artie Schiller in Monday's Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap, trainer Jimmy Jerkens hopes to continue his winning ways Thursday when he saddles Karakorum Splendor in the $250,000 Statue of Liberty division of the New York Stallion Stakes.
Only six 3-year-old fillies sired by New York-based stallions were entered for the 1 1/8-mile dirt race. None of the six is proven at the distance. , the only two-turn winner in the field, has lost five of her last six starts by double-digit lengths.
CHICAGO - Derek Lee led the major leagues as of Tuesday with a .360 batting average. Big deal. Mark Guidry is batting .380 after almost a month of riding at Arlington.
Arlington held 19 races over the weekend, and Guidry won seven of them, including the $300,000 Washington Park Handicap with Perfect Drift, one of Guidry's four victories on Saturday's card. Arlington ran 11 turf races last week: Guidry rode in six of them, won four, and finished second in another. His timing and sense of pace on grass recently have been nearly flawless.
