Golden Gate Fields received provisional approval from the Alameda (Calif.) County public health officer on Wednesday to resume racing May 14, seven weeks after the track was deemed a nonessential business due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The track made the announcement in a press release issued midday Wednesday.
Golden Gate will operate largely on a four-day per week basis from Thursday through Sunday through June 14, the conclusion of a winter-spring meeting that began in December.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson said in a Wednesday release that he anticipates the resumption of live racing at Woodbine in June.
The Woodbine meet was postponed from April 18 due to the state of emergency declared by the province of Ontario in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, the state of emergency was extended to May 19 to cover the Victoria Day holiday weekend.
Multiple graded stakes winner Diamond Oops returned to the work tab Wednesday morning at Palm Meadows, going a half-mile in 51.80 seconds over the main track.
It was his first breeze since Feb. 16, when he breezed seven furlongs on turf.
While trainer Patrick Biancone said he didn’t see anything on the Churchill Downs stakes schedule that enticed him, he is getting the 5-year-old gelding ready for a summer and fall campaign.
One of the horses likely to mentioned on Mark Casse’s Hall of Fame plaque is War of Will, who gave Casse his first U.S. classic victory in last year’s Preakness Stakes.
In 2020, Casse – announced Wednesday as the newest trainer elected to the Hall of Fame – hopes to make War of Will a Grade 1 winner on turf, a journey that begins Saturday in the $75,000 Sunshine Forever Stakes, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over Gulfstream Park’s turf course.
The purse for the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby at 1 1/8 miles on July 4 has been raised by $50,000, to $150,000, at the discretion of management.
Track vice president Jack Liebau said on Wednesday that Los Alamitos has been told the race will have a role in the points system of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Sept. 5. The Kentucky Derby was postponed from May 2 because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Churchill Downs officials have not announced the new points structure for the Kentucky Derby.
On the day he could have been going for his second victory in the Kentucky Derby, trainer Barclay Tagg was a little more than 1,000 miles away from Churchill Downs, at the Palm Meadows training center in South Florida. And instead of running for the roses with his colt Tiz the Law in the biggest race in the country, one he won in 2003 with Funny Cide, Tagg was sending Tiz the Law through a five-furlong work, marking time, waiting to see what’s next.
“We’re all just treading water,” Tagg said in a telephone interview earlier this week.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There are no stakes on the Churchill schedule until May 23, but it might not take long for a major player to make an appearance.
Monomoy Girl is eligible for a classified allowance scheduled for the May 16 opener. The $85,000, one-mile race would make for a suitable comeback spot for the 5-year-old mare, who has gone unraced since winning the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November 2018. An alternate spot is the $100,000 Shawnee, a new 1 1/16-mile race on May 23.
