HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Oaklawn Park has increased all overnight purses from $1,000 to $4,000 a race, the track announced Thursday. The boost goes into effect with the races for Saturday.
Oaklawn projects purses this meet will average more than $600,000 a day. It’s a track record, fueled in part by a gaming center expansion that opened the day before the meet opened Jan. 24. On the track, field sizes are averaging 9.5 horses a race, according to Lou Cella, president of Oaklawn.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Thursday’s eight-race card at Aqueduct was canceled due to a forecast for high winds, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday morning.
According to The National Weather Service, the winds Thursday afternoon are expected to 23 to 29 miles per hour with wind gusts as high as 39.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Before the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes culminates an extremely busy day, Gulfstream Park will run nine other stakes, eight of them graded, on a blockbuster Saturday card that starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.
In reverse order, here’s a quick rundown:
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream lost one major player after trainer Mark Hennig made a late decision to hold his stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Maedean out of the race in lieu of running her at Aqueduct one week later in the Busher Stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – He was bitten early by the racing bug, so much so that, from a young age, training was all he ever wanted to do. He remembers marveling at the exploits of Cigar in the mid 1990s, and in the late 1990s was captivated by the American Triple Crown, seeing the same faces show up every year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – War Stopper, a four-length maiden winner here on Jan. 11, worked a half-mile in 49.96 seconds Tuesday morning over the Belmont Park training track in preparation for a start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes on March 7.
Trainer Rudy Rodriguez, aboard for the work, said he galloped out a strong quarter of a mile past the wire.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old male of 2018, worked a half-mile in 49.20 seconds on Wednesday at Santa Anita, his second workout of the year.
Unraced since an impressive win in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby last July, Game Winner was rested last fall before returning to trainer Bob Baffert’s stable. Owned by Gary and Mary West, Game Winner is expected to return to racing in the spring.
Game Winner was the most prominent worker on a morning when several notable 3-year-olds were active.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Rob Atras will take two shots at winning a second Bernardini Stakes on Saturday.
Last year, Atras won the inaugural running of the Bernardini with Royal Albert Hall. Wednesday, he entered both Dynamax Prime and Heavy Roller as part of a nine-horse field in the Bernardini. The Bernardini is unusual in that it is run at 1 5/16 miles.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ollie’s Candy, the 2019 Grade 1 winner who was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November, is nearing a return to racing in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on March 14 at Santa Anita.
Monday, Ollie’s Candy worked six furlongs in a quick 1:12.40, the fastest of nine recorded works at the distance.
“We’re a week ahead of schedule,” trainer John Sadler said. “We didn’t get any rain in February. She looks good.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Lake Avenue, the dominant four-length winner of the Grade 2 Demoiselle on Dec. 7, will make her 3-year-old debut in the $250,000 Busher Invitational Stakes on March 7 at Aqueduct. She is expected to face Maedean, who finished second to Lake Avenue in the Demoiselle after dominating the Tempted Stakes.
Lake Avenue, a daughter of Tapit trained by Bill Mott for Godolphin Racing, preceded her Demoiselle victory with a 12 3/4-length maiden score against just three rivals in a seven-furlong race on Nov. 14 at Aqueduct.
