June, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Louisiana Legends Night: Evangeline Cards Six State-Bred Stakes Races Saturday

Evangeline Downs is hosting its annual celebration of the Louisiana-bred Thoroughbred this Saturday night with six $60,000 stakes races making up Louisiana Legends Night. It promises to be an exciting evening of racing and a delicious night of dining as several local-area food trucks will be on hand to provide the crowd with a variety of menu options.

The first stakes race of the night will be the $60,000 Cheval for 3-year-olds at one mile. The field of six is led by the 8-5 morning-line favorite, Relentless Dancer. The colt has won just one stakes race in his brief career, the $100,000 Louisiana Legacy at Delta Downs, but he also finished fourth in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park behind Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner, Tiz The Law. Additionally, he ran fifth in the Unbridled Stakes at Gulfstream behind the Belmont runner-up, Dr. Post. Gerard Melancon will have the ride on Relentless Dancer for trainer Mike Maker.

The $60,000 Turf Distaff at one mile for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up will feature a field of five with Net A Bear installed as the 8-5 morning-line choice. The Allen Landry trainee scored a win in the $60,000 Red Camelia Stakes at Fair Grounds in her last start on March 14. Tim Thornton will ride on Saturday. Is Too is the 9-5 second choice and she was the runner-up in that Red Camelia Stakes. She also was the runner-up in the 2019 Turf Distaff at Evangeline Downs before scoring a win in the $50,000 Opelousas Stakes on July 12 last year over the main track. Diego Saenz will ride Is Too for trainer Edward Johnston.

The most competitive stakes race on the program could be the $60,000 Mademoiselle at 5-1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up. A field of 10 will go to the post with Our Lost Love as a lukewarm 3-1 morning-line favorite. She has won two stakes races in her last three performances, the $100,000-added Louisiana Futurity at Fair Grounds on December 29 and the $76,300 Take Charge Brandi at Delta Downs on February 28. Carlos Lozada will be in the saddle on Saturday night for trainer Joey Foster.

The $60,000 Turf at one mile on the turf for 3-year-olds and up features a very strong top pair of favorites with Shang at 5-2 and Mageez at 7-2 on the morning-line. Shang is a Steve Asmussen-trained colt that won the 2019 Cheval as a 3-year-old at Evangeline Downs. He has won just one of five races since that victory, but also has been the runner-up in the $250,000 Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows and the $60,000 Dixie Poker Ace Stakes at Fair Grounds. Mageez is the defending champion in the Louisiana Legends Turf and has won twice more since that victory, including last time out in an Allowance/Optional Claiming race at Evangeline Downs on June 10.

The story of the $60,000 Sprint is the attempt at a three-peat in the race for the 5-2 morning-line favorite, Monte Man. The 7-year-old gelding drew the rail in a field of nine for the 5-1/2 furlongs race for 3-year-olds and up. Gerard Melancon will be in the saddle for trainer Ron Faucheux on Saturday night, as he has been for the two preceding Sprint wins for Monte Man. Monte Man has already won two of four starts in 2020, including the $75,000 Costa Rising Stakes at Fair Grounds on March 21.

The $60,000 Soiree for 3-year-old fillies at one mile features a field of eight headlined by the 8-5 morning-line favorite, Vacherie Girl. She has won three of five lifetime starts, including two stakes at Fair Grounds, the $100,000 Lassie on Louisiana Champions Day on December 14 and the $75,000 Crescent City Oaks on March 21. Joel Dominguez will be in the saddle for trainer Steve Asmussen on Saturday night.

Evangeline Downs will also be presenting exciting food options on Louisiana Legends Night with three food trucks available in the patio area near the saddling paddock. Fans can get sno-cones from Kona Ice, barbecue food from Ohh Taste and See and Cajun delicacies from Cest Bon Manger. Tamales Cinco de Mayo will also be serving authentic Mexican cuisine from the patio counter and Mojo's Sports Bar will be open on Saturday night, where fans can not only order drinks, but also place wagers and watch the races. Fans must be 21 or older to enter Mojo's, but families are welcome to attend the races and enjoy the other dining options offered on Saturday night at Evangeline Downs.

Post time on Saturday night will be 5:50 pm Central Time. All fans entering the building at Evangeline Downs will be required to have temperature checks and the racetrack is encouraging patrons to practice correct social distancing measures while they are visiting Evangeline Downs.

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Tom Robbins, David Jerkens Among Veteran Racing Officials For Del Mar’s Summer Meet

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will conduct its 81st summer racing season beginning Friday, July 10 led by a seasoned collection of veteran racing officials.

As they have for the past seven years, Tom Robbins and David Jerkens will combine to run the show as the heads of the seaside track's racing department.

Robbins, a member of one of California's great racing families, will be starting his 40th year at Del Mar as he heads up a crew of more than 80 racing department staff in his role as the track's executive vice president, racing and industry relations. Jerkens, who also hails from a great racing clan – his an east coast-based one that was headed by his late grandfather, the Hall of Fame conditioner H. Allen Jerkens — has made his mark in the west and will be heading up the track's racing office as its racing secretary for the seventh straight summer.

Others signed on for the 28-day, nine-week run through the summer will be assistant racing secretary Zachary Soto, returning for his 30th summer at Del Mar, and racing veteran Ed Reese, serving as the track's stakes coordinator for the third time. Joining them this year will be the track's new Racing Coordinator, Tora Yamaguchi, who worked in the department previously but now is coming off a stint as the jockey's agent for rider Rafael Bejarano.

Other key personnel in the unit include stable superintendent Jackie Lynn, jockey room clerk of scales Matt Nichols and his assistant, Charles McCaul, as well as clerk of the course Dawn Schmid.

In the stewards' stand will be the trio of Kim Sawyer (in her 12th season at Del Mar), Grant Baker (in his seventh) and Luis Jauregui, who has served as either a regular steward or a safety steward locally every year since 2009. Joining them as this summer's safety steward will be Ron Church, who performed the same job at Del Mar last fall.

Del Mar's placing judges will be Robert Moreno, Sue Brent and Reese doing double duty. Additionally, Heather Correa will serve as a patrol judge along with Brent, while Karen Denovel will work as both a paddock and patrol judge.

The track's veterinarian crew will consist of three CHRB “official” veterinarians: Dr. Barrie Grant, D.V.M., Dr. Nolton Pattio, D.V.M. and Dr. Tim Grande, D.V.M. Del Mar will have four additional veterinarians: Dr. Dana Stead, D.V.M.; Dr. Helmuth Von Bluecher, D.V.M.; Dr. Alina Vale, D.V.M., and Dr. Laurie Bohannon, D.V.M.

Following a safety measure the track put in place last year, two of the veterinarians again will be assigned to elevated observation stations in the mornings to oversee workouts and gallops on the racing surfaces. Should one of the veterinarians see something untoward with a horse, they have the capacity to have the animal removed from the track and examined for possible injuries or negative conditions.

Other noteworthy officials for the session – which will have racing on a Friday-through-Sunday basis each week and finish on Labor Day Monday, September 7 – include Bridget Crawford, paymaster of purses; Jennifer Paige, horse identifier; John Lies, morning line maker and officer timer, and Victor Tovar, horseshoe identifier.

Leif Dickinson is back for his 21st year as Del Mar's turf and landscape superintendent, while main track guru Dennis Moore returns for his fourth summer as director of track maintenance.

Yet another returnee for the meeting is veteran head starter Jay Slender, spending his seventh year at the shore.

First post throughout the stand will be at 2 p.m.

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Bloodlines: Versatile Tom’s D’Etat Defies Age, Convention With Continued Success

The career profile of Tom's d'Etat, winner of the Grade 2 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 27, is so contrary to the norm for racehorses here in the States that it begs for comment. The most obvious exception to the norm in the horse's resume is that he is racing at a very high level while age seven, and he is not a gelding.

So, “Y'zat,” as one of my young friends would say.

The simplest answer is that the $330,000 Keeneland September yearling began bucking the trends of modern racing early on and didn't race at two but then won six of nine starts at three, four, and five. “Various minor ailments or injuries,” according to the connections, kept the good-looking son of Smart Strike from racing more often. More importantly, of course, the horse showed ability, winning his maiden at Saratoga at three, then adding allowance victories at Fair Grounds, Churchill Downs, and Saratoga at four.

Beginning in November 2018 as a 5-year-old, Tom's d'Etat has been in steady racing, for him, and has maintained a high level of performance. When he returned to racing at five, Tom's d'Etat added a pair of victories: one was a fifth allowance, this at Churchill in November, and the second was the Tenacious Stakes at the Fair Grounds in December 2018. The Tenacious was the horse's ninth start and first black-type race. He's raced in nothing else since.

The “sheets” offer a further measure of the horse's ability and his steady level of performance over the past 20-odd months. From late 2018 to the present, according to the Thoro-Graph performance figures, Tom's d'Etat has earned a number above a zero, which is a very sharp number for the sheets, only once, when unplaced in his first experience of Grade 1 company in the 2019 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. All the rest are negative 1s and 2s, and the number of horses who run negative numbers on the sheets is a tiny percentage of performers across the country; to run them consistently for more than two years is extraordinary.

The consistency of this horse's performances is a credit to trainer Al Stall, who has presented this horse at the races ready to give his best, and Tom's d'Etat has stayed sound and happy while maintaining the consistency of high-class form that has brought him victory in the G1 Clark, as well as the G2 Fayette and now the Stephen Foster.

Bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock, Tom's d'Etat sold for $330,000 as a yearling, when he brought the seventh-highest price among 33 yearlings by the sire. Now the winner of more than $1.6 million, Tom's d'Etat looks like a pretty sound investment, and as a son of Smart Strike (Mr. Prospector), there could be more benefit to come.

The leading sire in the nation in 2007 and 2008, Smart Strike has proven a distinctive son of his great sire. The best of Smart Strike's stock have great speed and the ability to carry it, with both Curlin and Lookin at Lucky winning the Preakness Stakes and Curlin running a close second in the Belmont Stakes. Both were also champions at three, and in addition, Lookin at Lucky was the champion 2-year-old colt of his year.

Of equal importance, Smart Strike has been a very successful sire of stallions, with Horse of the Year and classic sire Curlin leading the list among the sons by Smart Strike. The stallion's additional champion sons English Channel and Lookin at Lucky have also struck gold on the sire lists, and they are significant sires of quality racers who have versatility with surface and distance.

Tom's d'Etat is out of the stakes-winning Julia Tuttle (Giant's Causeway), who is the best racer out of Candy Cane, an Argentine-bred full sister to leading sire Candy Ride (Ride the Rails). The dam of Candy Ride and Candy Cane is Candy Girl (Candy Stripes), a full sister to Argentine 2,000 Guineas winner City West. As a producer, Candy Girl is the dam of three major winners: the unbeaten Candy Ride, as well as the G3 stakes winners Candy Singer and Candy Apple.

This is a family that has shown the ability to race at the highest level at distances up to nine and 10 furlongs, on turf and dirt, in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. With Tom's d'Etat racing sound, there is apparently more to come.

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Road to the Breeders’ Cup: Focus Shifts to Belmont for the Runhappy Met Mile

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the traditional Thoroughbred racing calendar, the upcoming schedule for the July 4 holiday weekend offers both a prep race for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (the Los Alamitos Derby) and a major Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” qualifier in the form of the $500,000, Grade 1 Runhappy Metropolitan H