ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” football coach Vince Lombardi once famously said. But would Lombardi have turned down an ownership stake in the 7-year-old gelding Side Glance, or even the 6-year-old horse Suntracer?
Side Glance has won just one of his last 17 starts but has banked almost $2.5 million in purses during his 36-start career. He won $500,000 merely by finishing fourth for the second year in a row in the Dubai World Cup this past March.
The annual fair at the Pacific National Exhibition begins Saturday, and for the first time, racing fans won’t have to pay the admission fee to go to the track. Hastings, which sits on the PNE site, has been fenced off from the fairgrounds, and patrons will be able to access the track without going through the fair.
The fair ends on Labor Day, Sept. 1, and for the next couple of weeks, racing will be conducted Fridays and Mondays. The PNE is closed Mondays, and as part of the new deal, parking will be free the next two Mondays. The first race Mondays will be at 4 p.m. Pacific.
Trainer Pedro Alvarado is looking forward to running Dawselina in the Hong Kong Jockey Club next Friday. Dawselina gave Alvarado his first stakes win as a trainer when she upset the heavily favored Arabella’s Muse in the $50,000 B.C. Cup Dogwood on Aug. 4. Alvarado was one of the top riders at Hastings until he retired in 2012.
“I’ve won a lot of stakes as a rider, but this was pretty special,” said Alvarado. “She came out of the race in great shape, and hopefully she’ll run another good race.”
Alvarado said he wasn’t looking past the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Crown Queen certainly had the pedigree to be a stakes horse. The question was: On which surface would she excel?
It became obvious to trainer Bill Mott right away that Crown Queen would take more after her mother, Delta Princess – a three-time graded stakes winner on turf – than her half-sister Royal Delta, a two-time champion and 10-time stakes winner on dirt.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Paulo Lobo, who trained the 2002 champion 3-year-old filly Farda Amiga, has reopened a stable in Southern California after spending the last four years in his native Brazil.
Lobo, 45, and his family arrived in late July. His small stable currently is based at Los Alamitos. Lobo said he worked as a private trainer in Brazil in recent years, an arrangement that ended this summer.
“My contract ended last month,” Lobo said. “Instead of opening a public stable in Brazil, we decided to open a stable here. I was kind of homesick.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Mr. Candy could earn his way into the $150,000, Grade 3 British Columbia Derby with a win in the sixth race Friday at Hastings. The son of Candy Ride likely will be a short price in the first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds going 6 1/2 furlongs.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar is showing declines in both on- and off-track handle, and attendance is slightly down through the first four weeks of the season.
Total handle is averaging $12,040,282, a decline of 7.6 percent from comparable dates in 2013. On-track handle is averaging $2,224,041 per day, a decline of 11.7 percent. Handle from out of state, including advance-deposit wagering based outside California, is off 9.8 percent from last year.
Attendance is off just 2.1 percent for a still-healthy average of 18,035 on-track fans per day.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Richard Mandella hardly could contain the smile on his face after seeing how the two-time champion Beholder worked Monday, when she zipped five furlongs in 58.80 seconds, the best of 41 workouts at the distance.
“I thought that was a pretty good sign,” Mandella said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Judy the Beauty, Reneesgotzip, and Santa Anita Oaks winner Fashion Plate are among the prospective field for the Grade 3, $150,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap on Sunday at Del Mar.
Judy the Beauty has not raced since finishing fourth in the Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, May 3. Prior to that, she won the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland on Polytrack. She owns five wins in six starts on synthetic surfaces.
Reneesgotzip is making her first start since Nov. 2, when she finished in a dead heat for second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Molly Morgan, the winner of the Grade 3 Gardenia at Ellis Park last Saturday, is being pointed for the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 5, trainer Dale Romans said Wednesday.
The Spinster, a Win and You’re In prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Oct. 31, is among the most prestigious races for fillies and mares in Kentucky and could reveal whether she fits in the Breeders’ Cup. This fall, the Spinster will be contested on Keeneland’s new dirt track, which is being laid down this summer, replacing its synthetic Polytrack surface.
