The Virginia Racing Commission on Thursday approved a 21-day 2021 race meeting for Colonial Downs.
The season is schedule to span July 19 through Sept. 1 with racing on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Purses are projected to average roughly $500,000 per day.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- All stakes race run at Gulfstream Park will be run Lasix-free effective Jan. 1, 2021, the track's parent company, 1/ST Racing, announced Friday. Among the races affected by new the medication-free format are the $3 million Pegasus World Up Invitational and the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 23 as well as the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 27.
The race developed in a manner different than expected, but apprentice jockey Emily Ellingwood recorded her first career win in Thursday’s fourth race at Los Alamitos on 15-1 Billy K.
Ellingwood hoped to send Billy K to the front, but that idea changed rapidly after the 3-year-old filly was bumped at the start.
“The plan was to get her on the lead,” Ellingwood recalled Friday. “She prefers to be on the lead. That didn’t work out because I did get bumped coming out of the gate. I got her in a good spot where I could go between two horses.
Red Lark, winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks in August, worked five furlongs in 1:02.60 on Friday at Santa Anita for the Grade 1 American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.
“She seems nice and she seems happy,” trainer Paddy Gallagher said.
Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Red Lark was fourth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 10 at Keeneland, closing from last in a field of seven to finish 1 3/4 lengths behind race winner Harvey’s Lil Goil.
Acting Out, winner of consecutive allowance races at Del Mar and Los Alamitos in November and earlier this month, is scheduled to have her stakes debut in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes at six furlongs on turf Jan. 9 at Santa Anita.
A 3-year-old filly, Acting Out could give trainer Art Sherman his first stakes win since California Chrome’s victory in the Los Alamitos Winter Challenge in December 2016. California Chrome won his second Horse of the Year title in 2016.
Acting Out has developed rapidly in recent months for Sherman, 83.
An Arkansas rule change that now gives Oaklawn Park the ability to write Kentucky Derby points races like the Arkansas Derby as Lasix-free events was approved Friday by a state legislative review committee. The panel also gave final approval to other rules and amendments recently passed by the Arkansas Racing Commission.
Byron Freeland, attorney for the commission, said the rules will go into effect before the start of the Oaklawn meet. The season opens Jan. 22.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen is dominating the standings at Remington Park, which closes its meet Tuesday. He entered Friday night’s card with 72 wins, which is 46 more than second-leading trainer Austin Gustafson. Asmussen’s trainees have earned more than $1.3 million, which is tops this meet at Remington.
Heading into the Friday card, Asmussen led the owner standings by two wins over Danny Caldwell, 23-21.
Jockey Francisco Arrieta will be riding at the Oaklawn Park meet that opens Jan. 22, said Jay Fedor, who will represent the rider at the Hot Springs, Ark., track. Arrieta is currently riding at Fair Grounds and is due at Oaklawn sometime after Christmas.
“He’s a young rising star,” said Fedor, who through the years has brought a number of top riders to Oaklawn.
The ever-growing tentacles of the Brad Cox stable have now reached into South Florida, where Cox has set up shop at the Palm Meadows training center in Boynton Beach for the first time.
Cox was represented by his second winner of the 2020-21 championship meet at Gulfstream Park when a 2-year-old filly named Patty H was an easy gate-to-wire winner of a maiden-claiming race Thursday at the Hallandale Beach track. Cox has about 24 horses at Palm Meadows with assistant Dustin Dugas.
Richard Baltas had a career-best season in 2019, winning 13 graded stakes with a stable that earned $7.3 million. Those figures are safe for at least a year, although Baltas has an excellent chance to finish 2020 with a flourish.
With the start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26, Baltas plans to be active in several of the track’s nine stakes from opening day through Dec. 31. Baltas, 59, has 90 horses between Santa Anita and San Luis Rey Downs, a group that consists of a fair number of turf runners.
