Total betting on the 13-race Kentucky Oaks card run Friday at Churchill Downs was $30.65 million, according to charts of the races, roughly half of the record amount bet last year on the Oaks card.
The drop in betting reflects the impact of the race’s rescheduling due to the coronavirus pandemic from its historical location on the calendar on the first Friday in May to Sept. 4. It also reflects the loss of about $10 million in ontrack handle, as no spectators were allowed on the grounds.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher, a 13-time leading trainer at Saratoga, led Chad Brown, winner of three of the last four meets, by one win, 27-26, heading into the final four days of the Saratoga meet.
It’s conceivable the battle for leading trainer could come down to Monday’s Grade 1 Runhappy Hopeful, where Pletcher will send out Mutasaabeq and Brown saddles Reinvestment Risk. Those two were among the most impressive maiden winners at the meet.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Gary Gullo will be retiring from training at the end of September to become racing manager for one of his longtime owners, Anthony Melfi.
Gullo, who began training in 1980, said the transition to racing manager from trainer will afford him a better quality of life.
“It’s time for me to transition in that direction because I’m working with somebody who’s good and who I have a lot of faith in,” said Gullo, 60. “I have confidence that everything is going to be better.”
The Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on Monday has a projected field of six led by the recent maiden race winner Dr. Schivel and Weston, the unbeaten winner of the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 8.
The $250,000 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs is the main race on Monday’s final program of the Del Mar summer meeting. Santa Anita opens its autumn meeting on Sept. 19.
The other expected starters in the Del Mar Futurity field are the maidens Dixies Two Stents, Dyn O Mite, Scooby, and Spielberg. They were all second here in a maiden special weight race in their last start.
King Guillermo will be scratched from Saturday's Kentucky Derby after developing a fever on Wednesday afternoon, his trainer, Juan Carlos Avila, said on Thursday.
King Guillermo turned in a regular gallop on Wednesday morning, but did not train on Thursday morning. Avila said that the colt had developed “a little problem” and would be thoroughly examined by a veterinarian. He posted on his Twitter account just after 4:30 p.m. on Thursday that the colt would indeed need to withdraw from the race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Seventeen years later and Jack Knowlton is still asked about the yellow school bus that took him, his partners in Sackatoga Stable, their family, and friends from a downtown Louisville hotel to Churchill Downs for the 2003 Kentucky Derby.
As Knowlton, the managing partner of Sackatoga, tells it, fellow partner Dave Mahan asked a manager at the Galt House hotel how to transport 53 people to the track. Mahan was quoted a price of $3,600 for a luxury bus.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice said she will have mixed emotions Saturday watching the Kentucky Derby on television from Saratoga. She would much rather be in Louisville, putting the saddle on Max Player in what would have been her first Kentucky Derby.
But following Max Player’s third-place finish to Tiz the Law in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 8, owners George Hall and the SportBLX Thoroughbreds syndicate transferred the horse to Steve Amsussen, saying publicly they wanted a locally based trainer to prepare the horse for the Derby.
Jockey Juan Hernandez is nearly certain to finish the Del Mar summer meeting among the first four riders in the standings. It has been a successful meet that has convinced the former leading rider at Golden Gate Fields to remain in Southern California.
“I’m really happy,” Hernandez said on Wednesday. “The owners are helping me a lot. I like it so far.”
Hernandez is not the only former Golden Gate rider based in Southern California. Abel Cedillo made the move last year, and finished the six-month Santa Anita winter-spring meeting in June second in the standings.
A majority share of Dr. Schivel, the expected favorite in Monday’s Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity, was sold earlier this week to Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal.
Dr. Schivel will remain with trainer Luis Mendez through Monday’s $250,000 Del Mar Futurity and will be transferred to trainer Mark Glatt after the race, according to Tim Cohen of Rancho Temescal.
A colt by Violence, Dr. Schivel won his third start in a maiden special weight race at six furlongs on Aug. 8 by 5 3/4 lengths.
