LEXINGTON, Ky. – Offering further proof that the off-track wagering market drives business, even at a major fan destination such as Keeneland, all-sources betting was up 8.6 percent for the opening three-day weekend despite poor weather that led to weaker ontrack numbers.
Keeneland vice president Bob Elliston reported Monday that wagering totaled nearly $43.1 million for the three days. The comparable period last spring drew nearly $39.7 million. Field size averaged 9.6 horses a race.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Hoppertunity, the winner of Sunday’s Grade 3 Tokyo City Cup Stakes for his seventh career stakes win, may not be the most high-profile runner in trainer Bob Baffert’s stable.
After all, the barn includes the Kentucky Derby-bound Justify and the 2017 champion 3-year-old colt West Coast. Those runners are brilliant.
However, they cannot claim the longevity of Hoppertunity, who has been around so long that he was second to California Chrome in the 2014 Santa Anita Derby.
“He is a barn favorite,” Baffert said. “It’s pretty cool to have him around.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Beau Recall, the winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares on turf, will be pointed to the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita on May 26.
She certainly comes from a barn known for success in the $300,000 race at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
Trainer Simon Callaghan won consecutive runnings of the Gamely in 2011 and 2012 with Dubawi Heights and Belle Royale when the race was run at Hollywood Park.
“It’s my race,” Callaghan joked Sunday morning.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The two-time stakes winner Greyvitos will have his 2018 debut in Saturday’s Grade 3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, trainer Adam Kitchingman said Sunday.
Last week, Kitchingman considered starting Greyvitos in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at 1 1/8 miles at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, but has opted for the $200,000 Lexington Stakes, which is run at 1 1/16 miles.
“I’ll go in the softer spot and the shorter distance,” he said. “It’s been weighing on my mind pretty heavy in the last few days.”
California horses will have a strong presence in two of the three handicaps at Oaklawn Park this week during the Racing Festival of the South.
The festival, which begins Thursday and concludes Saturday - closing day of the Oaklawn season - is topped by the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on Saturday and consists of seven stakes worth a combined $3.5 million.
The Grade 1, $700,000 Apple Blossom, Grade 1, $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap, and the Grade 3, $400,000 Count Fleet will be run under handicap weights, which were released over the weekend.
ARCADIA, Calif. - At the end of the backstretch in Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks, Midnight Bisou was close to the rear of a field of nine 3-year-old fillies and in the midst of a wide rally. By early stretch, Midnight Bisou was in front and on her way to a comfortable victory by 3 1/2 lengths.
Trainer Bill Spawr expected Midnight Bisou to win. She was the 3-5 favorite and in peak form, Spawr said the before the race. Still, the style of the victory left him stunned.
“That was scary,” Spawr recalled Sunday morning. “Wow. I can’t believe what I saw.”
The second of trainer Todd Pletcher’s three graded stakes victories at Aqueduct on Saturday came with National Flag, who won the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes by four lengths.
Pletcher said a race like the Grade 3, $300,000 Pat Day Mile on the undercard of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs is now a possibility.
Trainer Mark Hennig typically has a conference call on Mondays with the principals of Courtlandt Farm to discuss upcoming plans for their horses. Barring anything unforeseen, Hennig fully expects plans for Gazelle Stakes winner My Miss Lilly to include the $1 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 4.
Hennig said My Miss Lilly came out of the race at Aqueduct “real well and as long as everything’s going well the plan will be to go forward to the Oaks.”
