The schedule of 20 non-Breeders’ Cup stakes at the Del Mar fall meeting are largely unchanged from the 2024 fall meeting, with the exception a lower purse for the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes.
The 16-day meeting runs from Oct. 30 to Nov. 30 and includes the Breeders’ Cup races on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Aside from the Breeders’ Cup races, the 20 stakes will be worth $3.15 million compared to $3.25 million last year.
Mick Ruis has worked out Grandma Mary’s schedule in the week leading to Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies.
“She had last work last Saturday, we’ll enter on Wednesday, and get our picture taken on Saturday,” he said at the barn on Monday morning.
“We’re ready.”
Ruis trains, owns and bred Grandma Mary, who was second by a half-length to Debutante hopeful Bourbon and Ginger in a maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 2. For Ruis, the abbreviated sprint was a good prep race for the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs.
Jockey Emanuel Nieves hit a milestone of 1,000 career wins on Aug. 26 at Louisiana Downs when he guided Jus Makes Cents to victory in the fifth race, according to Equibase.
Nieves won the first race of his career on May 14, 2012, at Finger Lakes. He’s compiled a career record of 8,177 starts for mount earnings of $19.4 million. His stakes winners include Norah G, Fort Polk, and Cabo’s Rumor.
Louisiana Downs has added two dates to its racing calendar. Both are Wednesday programs, on Sept. 10 and Sept. 17, according to Roxanne Tanner, the track’s director of racing.
“Our handle’s been showing an uptick this year,” she said of a reason for adding the dates.
Tanner said the move was made after discussions with the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. She said first post for the added dates will be 4:05 p.m. Central. Louisiana Downs will wrap up its meet Sept. 23.
The 71-year-old trainer Allen Landry is arguably operating the hottest barn in Louisiana. He will attempt to keep rolling Saturday when he saddles He’s Late Again in the $250,000, 1 1/8-mile Super Derby at Louisiana Downs.
Landry captured his first career training title this past spring at Delta Downs. Last weekend, he won three of the six Louisiana Cup Day stakes at Louisiana Downs. And on Monday, he picked up the training title at his base of Evangeline Downs.
Equibase, the racing industry’s official data supplier, has entered final race times into its database for the first three race cards at Kentucky Downs run last week that conflict with nearly all of the times registered by the track’s timing vendor, officials for the company confirmed on Tuesday.
Negotiations between representatives of Oklahoma riders and horsemen on mount fees paid to jockeys remained stalled on Tuesday morning, threatening the race cards at Remington Park already drawn for later this week.
Representatives of The Jockeys’ Guild and the Thoroughbred Racing Association of Oklahoma have been swapping proposals for a new mount fee schedule for weeks and have agreed on a new $100 mount fee for all losing rides, but the two sides remain stalled on two issues, according to Terry Meyocks, the chief executive of the guild.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Saratoga still does big business and attracts large crowds hardly seen at most racetracks, there does appear to be a saturation point for the premier Thoroughbred meet in the country. It’s something even upper management recognizes.
“We’re really looking forward to getting back to 40 days,” New York Racing Association president and CEO Dave O’Rourke said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Scottish Lassie, the 15 1/2-length winner of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, worked six furlongs in 1:13.86 Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track in preparation for a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes on Sept. 20 at Parx.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It’s Our Time, the impressive 2-year-old son of Not This Time who won his career debut by 17 3/4 lengths on Aug. 16, will make his next start in the Grade 1, $400,000 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 4, trainer Tom Amoss said Sunday.
The Champagne is run as a one-turn mile and Amoss said he likes that as a gradual stretch-out to ultimately trying two turns, perhaps in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar on Oct. 31.
