ELMONT, N.Y. – A new and serious player for the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 20 may have emerged Thursday when Tap It to Win rolled to a five-length victory in a first-level allowance race at Belmont Park.
Tap It to Win ran 1 1/16 miles in a fast time of 1:39.76, which was just .54 off the Belmont Park track record of 1:39.22 set by Transparent in 2014. Tap It to Win was assigned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure.
Three of the top 16 point earners for this year’s Kentucky Derby will be squaring off against one another Wednesday, not in a graded stakes at Belmont Park or Churchill Downs, but for a mere $55,000 purse going one mile under allowance conditions at Gulfstream Park.
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Laurel Park in Maryland will begin allowing out-of-state horses to run in its races beginning on June 12, the track said in an announcement on Friday.
Laurel Park, which returned to spectator-free live racing last weekend after being closed for 2 1/2 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been limiting entries to horses based in Maryland. The horses that ship-in to the track may be accompanied by one trainer and one groom only, the track said, and they will be placed in the track’s receiving barn.
Trainer Joe Sharp had surgery to remove a benign brain tumor Thursday at a hospital in Houston but is recovering well and expects to “be back at track by the end of next week,” according to social-media posts from his wife, the former jockey Rosie Napravnik.
Sharp, 35, was scheduled to have the tumor removed earlier this year but the surgery was delayed because of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Napravnik said. The trainer had been suffering from acute spells of dizziness since last year, and the tumor was initially diagnosed as vertigo, Napravnik said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Sunday’s $80,000 First Defence at seven furlongs on turf drew a full field of 14 runners and marks the return to the races of Win Win Win off an 11-month layoff.
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ELMONT, N.Y. – The delayed opening of the Belmont Park spring-summer meet on Wednesday was greeted enthusiastically by bettors, who wagered $10,972,254 on the 10-race card.
The figure was a record for an opening day at a Belmont spring/summer meet, according to the New York Racing Association. The previous record was $10.7 million in 2010.
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Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, on Thursday announced an amended stakes schedule featuring 18 races worth $1.4 million. The track also announced an amended racing schedule of 36 dates through Aug. 2. The season started May 22.
Lone Star had to delay the opening of its meet about five weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. It had been set for 44 dates.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jessica Buckley brings an impressive résumé to her new position as Woodbine Entertainment’s senior vice president of Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing. That valuable experience, coupled with strong leadership from CEO Jim Lawson and their management team, has led to a logical reshaping of the Woodbine meet, which was postponed from April 18 to Saturday due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saturday’s 11-race program attracted 118 entries, with the featured allowance carded as the ninth.
