Louisiana Downs and its sister track Indiana Grand will combine for a new pick four on Tuesdays through Sept. 24. The wager was approved last week by the Louisiana Racing Commission.
The Super Tuesday Pick 4 comprises two races from each track – the sixth and seventh from Indiana Grand and the second and third from Louisiana Downs. It is a 50-cent minimum and will have a reduced takeout of 15 percent. The normal takeout is 25 percent, according to the commission.
It’s My Money, winner of the $65,000 Pan Zareta division of the Texas Stallion Stakes last month at Lone Star Park, is being pointed to the $100,000 fillies division of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity, trainer George R. Bryant said. The 5 1/2-furlong race is July 14 at Lone Star.
It’s My Money broke from the rail in the Pan Zareta, set the pace, and prevailed by a half-length in the five-furlong race June 23.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Will Call, a graded stakes winner who earned $354,911 in 17 starts, all for owner-breeder Richard Klein, died of an apparent heart attack shortly after finishing 11th in the ninth race at Churchill on Saturday, closing day of the 38-day spring meet.
“He was our first winner, first stakes winner, and first graded winner for our sire Country Day,” said Klein. “I co-bred him with my dad. His death had nothing to do with the racetrack or anything like that. Just one of those things that happens.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress will make her next start in the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 3 at Saratoga, further adding to an already loaded race expected to get two other standout 3-year-old fillies also based at Churchill Downs, Covfefe and Break Even, as well as the California-based star Bellafina.
Trainer Tom Amoss had seriously considered the Indiana Oaks, to be run July 13 at 1 1/16 miles, for Serengeti Empress before consulting Sunday with owner Joel Politi.
Trainer Ralph Irwin has been notably absent from the entries this year, beginning with the Oaklawn Park meet that wrapped in May and now at Louisiana Downs. It’s the first time the 69-year-old has ever been away from the track as he grew up in a racing family.
Irwin’s father, R.L. “Bob” Irwin, was a former assistant to the late Hall of Fame trainer Marion Van Berg and a winner of three training titles at Oaklawn. Ralph Irwin worked for his father and later the late Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg before taking out his trainer’s license in 1975 at Oaklawn.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Gift Box, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in April, will have his next start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 17, trainer John Sadler said over the weekend.
Gift Box, who is owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis, was fourth as the 2-1 favorite in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 15, finishing 7 3/4 lengths behind winner Seeking the Soul.
CYPRESS, Calif.– High expectations were met when the 2-year-old colt Schrodinger won his career debut in a maiden special weight race at five furlongs at Los Alamitos on Sunday.
For owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Simon Callaghan, this was progress compared to a similar situation last year when their highly regarded filly Bellafina finished second in her debut at 1-2. Bellafina has since won six stakes and earned $1,102,125.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Omaha Beach, scratched as the morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby because of an entrapped epiglottis, could have his comeback in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 25.
Trainer Richard Mandella said on Sunday that the Shared Belief Stakes, run for 3-year-olds at a mile, is being considered along with the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 24.
“I’d probably just stay home and get a race in him,” Mandella said.
CYPRESS, Calif. – A day after he became the third jockey to win the Kentucky Derby and Queen’s Plate Stakes in the same year, Flavien Prat rode at Los Alamitos in Southern California. He was focused as much on the future as the recent past.
His first of two mounts on the nine-race program was Schrodinger, a highly promising 2-year-old who won his debut at 2-5. Schrodinger is a candidate for the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 10.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Don Chatlos Jr. figured he’d eventually get back to training on his own. He just didn’t think it would come at this time or under these circumstances.
On Sunday morning, shortly after 5:30, Chatlos’s return to training after an 11-year hiatus became official when he sent Rowayton out for a half-mile workout in preparation for Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park. Gone was the blue saddle towel with the H for Jerry Hollendorfer, in its place just a plain white towel.
