Ontario Racing and its Thoroughbred Improvement Program Committee have announced the inaugural Ontario Sire Heritage Series, an eight-leg stakes series for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds that will be conducted at Woodbine and Fort Erie this year.
With a total purse structure of $750,000, the Heritage Series will feature four races – three opening legs and one final – for both 3-year-old males and 3-year-old fillies eligible to the Ontario-sired program.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Grade 3 Gotham Stakes winner Weyburn has been named the 3-1 winter-book favorite for the $1 million Queen’s Plate, which is scheduled to be run Aug. 22 at Woodbine
The Queen’s Plate winter book, compiled by Ron Gierkink and Alex Campbell of Daily Racing Form, assigns hypothetical odds to all 125 nominees for this year’s Canadian Triple Crown.
Dominick Imperio, a former Thoroughbred trainer mostly on the New York circuit, died Tuesday in a hospital in Ocala, Fla. due to complications from cancer. He was 78.
According to Equibase, Imperio won 177 races from 1,812 starters from 1976 to 1992. His son, Michael Imperio, a current owner on the New York circuit, said his father trained and won races in the 1960s as well.
Los Alamitos will resume hosting customers at its evening meeting beginning on April 2, the track announced on its website.
The decision comes after Santa Anita announced last weekend that it plans to reopen for customers on the same day, following guidance for outdoor sporting events during the pandemic from government officials.
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NEW ORLEANS – Mike Stidham on the morning of March 15 periodically stroked a handsome black and white cat sprawled over the desk in his Fair Grounds barn office. Stidham through the years has disdained pets. Allergies, he claimed. Something has changed; the cats have become beloved. What has not changed, according to the man himself, is the general manner Stidham goes about training the racehorses in his care. This is year 40 in the training career of 63-year-old Stidham, who struck out on his own during the summer of 1980 with a couple horses at Louisiana Downs.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Tony Dutrow is freshening Ruthless Stakes winner Miss Brazil for a summer campaign, with the major target being the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 7 at Saratoga.
Miss Brazil went back to the track Wednesday for the first time since she finished second to Search Results in the Busher Invitational here March 6. Dutrow said Miss Brazil simply jogged with the pony.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Windmill, who is unbeaten in two starts, is being pointed to the $200,000 Purple Martin for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs April 3 at Oaklawn, trainer Larry Jones said Tuesday.
Windmill won her debut in a maiden special weight sprint Jan. 23 at Oaklawn, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 84. She came back and won the $150,000 Dixie Belle by a length here Feb. 28, defeating a strong field with a Beyer of 87.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Following a fruitless February, trainer Ray Handal is enjoying a marvelous March. It’s a trend he hopes continues when he sends out two runners in Saturday’s $100,000 Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct.
Handal went 0 for 14 between Aqueduct and Turfway in February, and has gone 5 for 11 between those two tracks in March through Sunday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Willis Horton and trainer Dallas Stewart are still determining their next move with Will’s Secret, who won her second Kentucky Oaks points race of the Oaklawn meet on March 6 in the Grade 3 Honeybee.
“She’s doing real good, has had a lot of good days since she ran,” Stewart said Tuesday. “We’re just trying to figure out what our next move is. You go back and forth.”
Stewart said he and Horton are looking at running in either the Grade 3, $600,000 Fantasy on April 3 at Oaklawn or having Will’s Secret just train up to the Kentucky Oaks.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flavien Prat left Santa Anita late Sunday afternoon with a different feeling than his experiences in 15 racing days over the previous five weeks.
Prat was winless with six mounts.
Beginning on Feb. 12, a day he won three races, Prat had an astonishing late winter span at Santa Anita, winning 40 races from 105 mounts that earned $1,865,200. He won at least one race each day for 15 racing days, including six on March 12.
