OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Midnight Disguise, a three-time stakes winner on this circuit earlier this year, returned to the work tab Thursday at Belmont Park, breezing a half-mile in 50.71 seconds as she begins preparation for a 4-year-old campaign in 2019.
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The West Virginia Racing Commission on Thursday approved 164 days of racing at Charles Town for 2019 and signed off on the track's unrestricted stakes schedule, including the Grade 2 Classic, which will have a reduced purse of $1 million.
The Charles Town Classic has become a point of contention between Charles Town management and the commission, which believes the purse is excessive and that the funds can be used more effectively to benefit racing in the state.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With the 133-day meet ending on Sunday, there’s good and bad news on the wagering front at Woodbine. Overall betting is up, but the important home-market handle has decreased.
“Wagering by Ontario customers on the 2018 Woodbine Thoroughbred meet is down 5 percent,” said Greg Martin, Woodbine’s vice president of wagering. “We would expect this bottom-line number to improve. All-sources wagering on the Woodbine Thoroughbred meet is currently up 3 percent due to strong growth from U.S. markets.”
Trainer Brad Cox has been on a stakes tear all year long and on Sunday he will invade Remington Park with starters for three of the six stakes making up the final card of the meet, including the $400,000 Springboard Mile.
The Springboard Mile and the Oklahoma Derby, run in September, are the co-richest races at the Remington meet. The Springboard Mile will award its first four finishers Kentucky Derby eligibility points on a scale of 10-4-2-1.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Jeremiah Englehart trains three of the six juvenile fillies entered Wednesday for Saturday’s $150,000 Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Stakes at six furlongs at Aqueduct.
Englehart entered Cartwheelin Lulu, winner of the Joseph A. Gimma on Sept. 19; Party Like Grandma, winner of the Seeking the Ante in Saratoga on Aug. 24; and L. A. Page, a debut winner at Belmont on Sept. 14 who finished eighth in the Maid of the Mist on Oct. 20.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On Friday, at Aqueduct, Bob Klesaris will start his first horse as a trainer in 11 years. Just don’t call it a comeback.
“I’m just passing the time,” Klesaris said Wednesday.
Klesaris is the trainer of One More Tom, entered in a $40,000 claiming race for horses who haven’t won two races. The one-mile race goes as the seventh on Friday’s nine-race card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s $100,000 Sugar Swirl lost likely favorite Curlin’s Approval earlier this week due to a minor illness, but picked up a couple of surprise entrants with Dream Pauline and Stormy Embrace among the eight fillies and mares now slated to contest the six-furlong Grade 3 dash.
Roy H, the champion sprinter of 2017 who has won the last two runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, worked a half-mile in 49.20 seconds at Del Mar on Wednesday in preparation for the 2019 season.
Trainer Peter Miller on Wednesday reiterated previously stated plans to have Roy H ready for the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at six furlongs at Santa Anita on Jan. 19 as a prep for the Group 1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai on March 30.
Owned by Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen, Roy H was third in the Golden Shaheen last March.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The $100,000 Soviet Problem Stakes for California-bred 2-year-old fillies will be run on Saturday without the first two finishers of the Golden State Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
Give Me a Hint, who won the Golden State Juvenile Fillies in her stakes debut, is being rested until the spring, trainer Bob Hess Jr. said.
“I’m going to give her a little break,” he said. “She has a few little baby things.”
Mucho Unusual “won’t make the race,” trainer Tim Yakteen said in a text message.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Quarter Horse jockey Cesar De Alba is retiring this weekend and plans to begin training Thoroughbreds on the Southern California daytime circuit in 2019.
De Alba, 37, said on Tuesday that he is in the process of completing the certification process to secure a trainer’s license. He said he plans to be based at Los Alamitos and may have a small group of Quarter Horses racing at the track’s year-round nighttime meeting.