Gulfstream Park will raise purses an average of 10 percent beginning on July 23, the Hallandale Beach, Fla., track announced in a release.
Gulfstream's third summer of live racing continues to show increases in business over the first two. According to the release, Gulfstream handled $8 million on the July 5 Summit of Speed card, compared to $4.7 million handled at Calder in 2013, the last time it was run.
AUBURN, Wash. – It’s been a quiet meet for Doris Harwood, Emerald’s all-time leader with 66 stakes wins, but things are about to heat up. Daytona Beach, a Harwood homebred, is likely to set the pace Sunday in the 1 1/16-mile Seattle Slew Handicap and might be good enough to win it. Next week, Noosito, Harwood’s stable star, will start as one of the favorites in the Mt. Rainier Handicap – the final stakes prep before the Aug. 16 Longacres Mile.
Daytona Beach was speedy and game in his first route attempt, and that might be just the tip of the iceberg.
AUBURN, Wash. – Frank Lucarelli figured he’d have one of the leading 3-year-olds at Emerald this year with the speedy Trackattacker, but things haven’t worked out as planned. Trackattacker made just one start at the meeting before shipping out to California and, ultimately, to Arizona.
But Lucarelli has a big crop of 3-year-olds. Even without Trackattacker, he’ll have three starters in the $50,000 Seattle Slew Handicap on Sunday.
AUBURN, Wash. – Business is booming at Emerald Downs. The midpoint of the 70-day meeting came and went Friday, and both average field size – spurred by a 20 percent increase in overnight purses – and betting handle have jumped dramatically from the corresponding date in 2014.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Nancy Betts is considering the $100,000 Redekop Classic on Aug. 3 at Hastings as the next start for Brackendale. Acting on behalf of owner Rick Hunter, Betts claimed Brackendale out of an $8,000 conditional-claiming race June 6. In his two starts for Betts, he won a $25,000 optional-claiming race June 21 and came back with another front-running win in a $25,000 claiming race July 5. He earned 83 Beyer Speed Figures in both races, which isn’t that far off the 89 Beyer that Mr. Bowling received for winning the $50,000 Lieutenant Governor’s on July 5.
DEL MAR, Calif – Eddie Truman is always one of the first trainers to arrive here at Del Mar every summer, and he couldn’t wait for Friday, when horses were allowed on the track for the first time after being allowed into the stable area Thursday. So eager was Truman that he joked, “I brought bolt cutters just in case” he couldn’t get in.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Morning Coffee moved to the top of the local 3-year-old filly division with an impressive win in the $50,000 Supernaturel Handicap on July 1. She was ridden by Pedro Alvarado, who said she just dragged him around the three turns.
What was impressive was the way she went three wide around the first turn while dueling with horses to her inside and outside. After emerging with the lead, she set quick fractions and kept rolling to a 2 3/4-length win in the 1 1/16-mile race.
“I really didn’t want to be on the lead, but she did,” said Alvarado.
Finnegans Wake, the leading turf runner in California this year with three graded stakes wins, is a candidate for the $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf July 18 at Del Mar.
Finnegans Wake was fourth of 11 in the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on dirt June 27 but will go back to turf for the start of the Del Mar summer meeting, trainer Peter Miller said.
Three-time stakes winner Kobe’s Back worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 on Friday at Santa Anita and will start in the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs July 26 at Del Mar.
Trainer Peter Eurton said the Grade 1 Crosby has appeal since it is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth in the BC Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
Earlier this year, Kobe’s Back won the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes at seven furlongs at Keeneland but was sixth in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park on June 6.
CYPRESS, Calif. – California horse racing had its lowest number of major drug violations in the last 40 years for the fiscal year ending June 30, according to a statement released Thursday by the California Horse Racing Board.
During that time, there were four violations for medications in classes 1, 2, or 3 compared with 28 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. Violations for medications in those classes result in an automatic forfeiture of a purse and frequently a fine or suspension for the trainers whose horses test positive.
