Wednesday, July 16 2008

LAUREL PARK SUMMER MEETING APPROVED

LAUREL, MD. 07-15-08---The Laurel Park summer meeting was approved this afternoon at the monthly Maryland Racing Commission meeting. After an eight-week break, live racing will return to Maryland on Friday, August 8. The 10-day summer meeting will include twilight racing (3:30 p.m. post time) on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The meet will include a pair of $50,000 state-bred stakes races for three-year-olds: Twixt Stakes (Saturday, August 9) and Humphrey S. Finney (Saturday, August 16). First post for the weekend dates is 1:10 p.m.

Tuesday, July 15 2008

Del Mar Stable Notes 7/15/08

NEW 'KING OF THE NORTH' HOPES FOR BIG DEL MAR MEET

William E. Morey, who knocked Jerry Hollendorfer from his perennial perch atop the Golden Gate Fields trainers' standings, has 12 horses stabled at Del Mar as he hopes to build on that title for a solid meet at the shore.

Hollendorfer had won 32 straight trainer titles at the Northern California oval going back to 1986.

"It feels really good," said Morey, son of longtime trainer William E. Morey Jr. "It was a long time coming. Jerry's done very well for himself, both north and south [at the three Southern California venues]. Eventually, somebody was going to do it and I'm glad it was me."

Awesome Alexandra Bids for Fourth Straight in Thursday Feature

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (July 14, 2008) - Farnsworth Stables’ 4-year-old filly Awesome Alexandra has won her last three races at Calder Race Course by clear margins in starter/allowance competition, and trainer Marty Wolfson will take advantage of her ‘two other than’ allowance conditions for her next appearance Thursday as the likely odds-on favorite facing six rival fillies and mares at 6 ½ furlongs.

Apprentice jockey Paco Lopez gets a return call after riding Awesome Alexandra in all three of her easy victories at the meet, the first two sprinting by more than six lengths each time, and the last at 1 1/16 miles by 2 ½ lengths after that race on June 20 was forced off turf.

Juvenile Starter/Allowance Events Featured Friday

Two-year-olds will be in the spotlight on Friday’s 10-race program at Calder Race Course with a pair of starter/allowance races at five furlongs, one for colts and geldings and the other restricted to fillies that broke their maidens for a claiming tag of $32,000 or less.

Stride Rite Racing Stable and NTS Stable’s chestnut gelding Cinnamon Road may rule the choice in the colts and geldings division with apprentice Paco Lopez named to ride for trainer Milt Wolfson. The son of Delaware Township broke his maiden by 3 ¼ lengths going five furlongs on July 4 after a fourth-place debut as the favorite in a maiden special event.

Monday, July 14 2008

Cawaja Beach shines bright in Shady Well

TORONTO, July 13 - Cawaja Beach rallied smartly to capture Sunday's $150,000 Shady Well Stakes at Woodbine.

The daughter of Where's the Ring seized command at the top of the stretch and stayed on well in the final eighth, defeating Sans Souci by 2 1/4 lengths.

Van Lear Rose finished third, but was moved up to second when stewards disqualified Sans Souci from second and placed her fourth for interfering with Koonunga Hill, who was placed third.

KIP DEVILLE DOESN’T FOLD IN POKER

Having already won the first of three major races on Kip Deville’s schedule this year, trainer Richard Dutrow entered the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner in Sunday’s Grade 3, $108,300 Poker to “give him something to do.”

He did good.

Breaking sharp under jockey Cornelio Velasquez, Kip Deville got away with a 24.36 opening quarter mile and a 47.32 half, then kicked clear to win the one-mile Widener Turf Course event by 2 ¼ lengths in 1:32.94.

BELMONT NOTES, Sunday, July 13, 2008

2007 Horse of the Year Curlin came out of his second-place finish to Red Rocks in Saturday’s Grade 1 Man o’War Stakes in good order and was on his way to Saratoga Sunday morning. The Man o’War was Curlin’s first start on turf.

“Physically, he came out of the race great,” reported trainer Steve Asmussen.

The trainer added that he would evaluate the colt during the weeks ahead and that at this point, he was considering “all options.”

Monmouth Park Recap for Sunday, July 13, 2008

DANCE HALL DAYS TAKES SERENA’S SONG STAKES; ROUSE THE CAT LOWERS COURSE RECORD IN McSORLEY SCORE

OCEANPORT, N.J. * Edward P. Evans’s Dance Hall Days split horses in late stretch to post a neck victory in the $70,000 Serena’s Song Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth Park.

In the $60,000 John McSorley Stakes, Rouse the Cat came home a three quarter length winner and stopped the timer in 1:01.75, besting the old track record of 1:01.91 set just one day prior by Sir Winston.

Hystericalady victorious in Delaware Handicap

Hystericalady won the 71st renewal of the $1million Grade II Delaware Handicap today. With Garrett Gomez in the irons, the 5-year-old daughter of Distorted Humor won by 4-lengths and covered the mile and a quarter in 2:02.37. Lemon Drop Mom, with Jose Caraballo, ran second and it was another ¾-lengths farther back to the 2-to-1 favorite Unbridled Belle with Ramon Dominguez. Hystericalady returned $7.00 as the third choice in the field of eight. The Kentucky-bred raised her career record to ten wins from 20 starts with earnings of $2,110,556.

Calder Home Team Runners Hold Their Ground on ‘Summit’ Day

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (July 13, 2008) - Most of the headlines going into Saturday’s ‘Summit of Speed’ program at Calder Race Course were focused on the 14 high-profile invaders from coast-to-coast in the four Graded stakes events, but the Calder-based horsemen kept a fair share of the $1.3 million at home.

M375 Thoroughbreds and Suarez Racing’s 3-year-old Golden Spikes, trained by Marty Wolfson, was the only winner of one of the ‘Big Four’ events, capturing the $250,000 Carry Back Stakes (G2), but the Calder horsemen also came back with three runner-up performances, a third and two fourth-place finishes.

Calder’s Summit of Speed recap

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (July 13, 2008) – Calder Race Course presented its ninth annual Summit of Speed program, a day dedicated to sprint races – including four Graded stakes – on Saturday, July 12. The $400,000 Grade I Princess Rooney Handicap and $400,000 Grade II Smile Sprint Handicap, both Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ races for their respective divisions, highlighted the card that attracted a meet-to-date high attendance of 8,425 racing fans.

The enthusiastic on-track crowd wagered $731,114 on the 12-race program, which included a total six stakes races. Racing fans at inter-track wagering (ITW) facilities throughout the state of Florida bet another $442,512, while customers at intra-state wagering (ISW) locations around the country added $4,360,238 to bring the total handle to $5,533,864 – the highest of the season that began on April 21.

Arlington Park Barn Notes: Sun. July 13

‘RUSTY’ RULES MILLION PREVIEW DAY WITH STREAM CAT, COMMUNIQUE

First, Stream Cat captured the Grade III Arlington Handicap in a tune-up for the Grade I Arlington Million, and then Communique captured the Grade III Modesty Handicap as the final local prep for Grade I Beverly D. to give conditioner George “Rusty” Arnold a training double during Chicago’s Million Preview Day on Saturday at Arlington Park.

Both Stream Cat, owned by Fab Oak Stable, Bobby Hurley and John Goldthorpe; and Communique, G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s feminine color bearer; came out of their respective races in good order. So what’s next? Is the Arlington Million on the second Saturday in August on the radar for Stream Cat?