There's no shortage of horses at Charles Town. In fact, the entry box is regularly overflowing.
Last Friday, for example, a race for bottom-level $2,500 claimers attracted 38 entries. A conditioned claiming race for $5,000 horses drew 39 runners on Saturday. Both races attracted multiple ship-ins, primarily from Maryland, where horsemen are looking for a place to run while Pimlico and Laurel are closed.
Overall, Charles Town averaged 180 entries a card last week.
The finals of the $46,620 American Airlines West/Southwest Futurity will be held Saturday at Yavapai Downs. There are 10 finalists set to run in the 350-yard race.
The horses and their qualifying times are Rocket Effort (17.50 seconds), Justenuffheart (17.51), SLR Leavin Laughing (17.57), Royal Beduino Man (17.61), Mr. Pop Eye (17.66), Come Back Shane (17.68), Chicks Blue Dash (17.68), Cartel Charley (17.76), Caits Rocket (17.79), and Quick Tease (17.85).
The Thistledown meeting, second of the four meetings which make up the racing season at Thistledown, ended last Sunday, but calculating the pluses or minuses is not cut and dried.
This year's average attendance for 60 days was 3,771, down 3 percent from a year ago. The daily average on-track handle was down 10 percent to $197,257.
Apprentice jockey Argelio "Gino" Velazquez won his first career race in last Friday's second race at Fairmount Park aboard West Lakeshore.
Velazquez, a native of Cuernavaca, Mexico, is already well known to local horsemen after working for five years as an exercise rider for trainers Eddie Essenpreis and Jimmy Zook, as well as riding county fairs. Fittingly, it was Essenpreis who gave the 25-year-old Velazquez the leg up on his first winner.
Wednesday's oppressive heat that sent the thermometer soaring wasn't the only thing that was up at Ellis Park. Purses have risen to all-time highs.
Paul Kuerzi, the track's vice president/general manager, announced a 5 percent purse increase across the board in all races except stakes.
Additionally, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development monies allotted to open maiden and allowance races was elevated from 50 to 60 percent of the base purse offered by the association.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - Agricultural Park in Columbus opened its 25-day meeting last Friday night with a good crowd of 2,670 fans on hand despite a temperature in the high 80's. The enthusiastic crowd was an 18 percent increase over last year's opening night. Handle on the eight live races was nearly identical to the same night last year.
Friday begins the final week of racing at Colonial Downs, which concludes its meet Tuesday.
On July 29, for the first time at the 22-day meet, the entire 10-race card was taken off the turf and run on the dirt because of rain. Up to that point, grass races accounted for 85 percent off all the races run at the meet.
* Trainer Leigh Offutt won her first race last Sunday with Humbucker in the fifth race. Offutt, 21, the leading amateur rider in the country last year, received her trainer's license in June.
Bugs by Yawl, a Quarter Horse based at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, won his eighth consecutive race last Sunday night when he captured the $11,900 Kool Kue Baby Overnight. With his victory, the colt moved one step closer the record for consecutive wins by a Quarter Horse, which stands at 14.
Bugs by Yawl's win streak dates back to last December, when he won a starter allowance race at Lone Star Park near Dallas. He was claimed two races prior for $7,500, and has since developed into a multiple stakes winner for his new owners, Bubba Smith and Bill Fowler.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The goal this spring for Point Given was the Triple Crown, and though he won both the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, the loss in the Kentucky Derby still smarts to those around him. Now however, they are ready to turn the page. Point Given's second season, designed to bring him the Horse of the Year title, is about to begin.
