Ellis Park will be closed for training Sunday and Monday as officials at the western Kentucky track attempt to clear the track of rocks that became enmeshed in the surface when a new batch of dirt was added.
Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky division of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said the issue has come to the forefront as prominent trainers such as Larry Jones have said they will not race at Ellis this summer.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A handful of jockeys who have ridden at Churchill Downs this spring will head to Saratoga when that upstate New York meet begins July 19, while the rest will ride at a combination of Ellis Park, Indiana Downs, and Arlington Park until racing returns here for the September meet.
Shaun Bridgmohan, who appears well on his way to the spring-meet riding title, will be back at Saratoga this summer, along with Rosie Napravnik, Alan Garcia, Joe Rocco Jr., and Robby Albarado.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In theory, Mischief Maker is stepping up in class when she goes from a New York-bred stakes to Sunday’s $90,000 Open Mind Stakes at Belmont Park. In reality, this race looks easier than the restricted Dancin Renee Handicap for state-breds on June 1, a race in which Mischief Maker finished a well-beaten fifth.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Street Gem, disqualified from a stakes placing last time out, gets another chance to earn her first black type on Sunday in the $60,000 Revidere Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf at Monmouth Park.
She faces six rivals in the 1 1/16-mile race in her first start since the Little Silver Stakes here on Memorial Day.
An in-the-money finish in a stakes is always valuable on a filly’s r é sum é . Trainer Kathleen O’Connell said she thought Street Gem had accomplished that in the Little Silver.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – For the second consecutive week, Fort Erie has canceled its Monday card due to a lack of entries.
Fort Erie races Sundays and Tuesdays and had planned to add Mondays to the schedule beginning June 17.
“It wasn’t even close,” Fort Erie racing secretary Eric Johnston said Friday morning. “We looked at the situation going into yesterday’s entries for Sunday, and it was pretty obvious that we weren’t going to make Monday and make Tuesday also.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Terlani will have ample speed to set up her good late move Sunday, when she goes as the likely favorite in an allowance race for fillies and mares at Hastings. Run at 1 1/16 miles, the race will serve as the feature Sunday and drew a solid field of eight, including seven stakes winners.
Trained by Frank Barroby, Terlani is coming off a fast-closing second in the $50,000 Vancouver Sun on June 9. She won the Sun last year and then went on the shelf after she was injured when a horse ran into her while she was training.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Riding the River, Canada’s reigning champion male turf runner, will attempt to win the $200,000 King Edward Stakes for the second year in a row at Woodbine on Sunday.
Riding the River won a pair of Grade 2 stakes last year, the King Edward and Nijinsky. After running second in the Grade 2 Play the King Stakes in August, he capped his abbreviated campaign with a closing fourth in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If he knew anything about it, Casino Dan might feel like Cooper Manning, an athlete with two brothers who have made it huge.
Like Peyton and Eli to Cooper, the equine analogies for Casino Dan are his older brothers Wise Dan and Successful Dan, whose feats made their dam, Lisa Danielle, the 2012 Broodmare of the Year in Kentucky.
New Yawker, a 7-year-old gelding claimed for $5,000 in February, broke Delaware Park’s main-track record for 5 1/2 furlongs and extended his winning streak to four races in Thursday’s fourth race.
Ridden by 10-pound apprentice rider Jevian Toledo in a $5,000 starter allowance, New Yawker ran the distance on a fast track in 1:02.59, erasing the previous record of 1:02.68 set by Trickle of Gold in 2006. He rallied from second to score by three-quarters of a length over 4-5 favorite Gangsterontherun.
Trainers Mike Salvaggio and Bernie Houghton will try to repeat successful patterns in a pair of turf stakes restricted to the offspring of Pennsylvania-based stallions Saturday at Penn National.
Salvaggio’s 5-year-old mare Lenape Rim will make her second start of the season while switching from a dirt sprint to a 1 1/16-mile grass route in the $60,000 Wiseman’s Ferry HBPA.
Two races later, the Houghton-trained 9-year-old gelding Saco River returns from a nine-month layoff in the $60,000 Smarty Jones HBPA, which also is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on grass.
