January, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘She Has A Bright Future’: Soft Whisper Makes A Lot Of Noise In UAE 1,000 Guineas

The first classic of the UAE season took place in the UAE 1000 Guineas (Listed) this Thursday at Meydan, held over one mile on the dirt. Godolphin's Saeed bin Suroor-trained Soft Whisper vied for favoritism with Al Rashid Stables' Doug Watson-trained Mnasek before the race.

What set up as a great matchup never manifested as Soft Whisper screamed home a dominant seven-length winner under stalk-and-pounce Frankie Dettori tactics, while Mnasek missed the break before closing to a distant second under Dane O'Neill. Watson-trained Super Chianti was another 2 1/4 lengths back in third under Pat Dobbs after racing greenly during the final three furlongs.

The final time was 1:38.67 and the winner landed her second race of the season, following a one-sided tally in the UAE 1000 Guineas Trial three weeks ago. By Dubawi out of the Sea the Stars mare Placidia, the homebred gave Dettori his fourth win in the race this century and Bin Suroor his 12th. Bigger races may be on the horizon for the now four-time winner from six starts.

“She missed the kick last time, but this time she jumped really good into position and was always in control,” Dettori said. “When I kicked, she went–simply as that. I didn't have to do too much. She has a bright future. Saeed mentioned everything–Saudi (Derby), UAE Oaks, UAE Derby–who knows. When you win so impressively, you get excited and you think of big plans. I was just saying to Saeed that the last time I won a race this easily was probably Dubai Millennium in 2000. It took me 21 years to find one just as easy.

“That was good. We have big hopes for her. Maybe she didn't beat the best in the world, but the way she did it, you have to be impressed. We'll take one step at a time. Nothing has tested her today, so it would be wrong for me to say how good she is because I need some better competition, but at the moment everything is in the right place.”

“We got beat by a good horse on the night, there's no doubt about that,” O'Neill added about the runner-up. “We got a bit of kickback early on and they got a couple lengths on me on the turn, but when she saw daylight, she stayed on well. She's a timid little filly and likes a little bit of space and out of the kickback. She's a nice filly and she'll probably stay farther next time.”

Regarding Super Chianti, Dobbs added: “She was greener tonight than she was the first night. She travelled well, but when I went for her, she just stuck her head in the air and never went forward for me.”

The $1.5 million Saudi Derby is set for a similar one-turn, one-mile trip at King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Feb. 20 in Riyadh, while the UAE Oaks (G3) over 1 3/16 miles on Feb. 18. The UAE Derby is slated for Dubai World Cup day, March 27.

The post ‘She Has A Bright Future’: Soft Whisper Makes A Lot Of Noise In UAE 1,000 Guineas appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Friday’s Stronach 5 Features Action From Three Racetracks

The Stronach 5, which continues to offer a strong return on investment and an industry-low 12-percent takeout, will feature races Friday from Laurel Park, Gulfstream Park and Golden Gate Fields.

The action begins at 3:55 ET with Laurel's eighth race, a very competitive optional allowance claiming event at a mile for 3-year-old fillies.

The favorite is likely to be Team Gaudet's Fraudulent Charge, a daughter of Will Take Charge who stepped up off a debut victory in November to finish second by a nose in the $100,000 Gin Talking Stakes behind multiple stakes winner Street Lute. Malibu Beauty cuts back a bit in distance for trainer Gary Capuano after setting the pace and finishing fourth Dec. 26 in the $100,000 Anne Arundel. The 11-horse field also includes Chloe Rose, a daughter of Twirling Candy from the stable of Brittany Russell, who won in her second start by 2 ¼ lengths at a mile.

The second and third legs of the Stronach 5 will be hosted by Gulfstream. The second leg, Gulfstream's eighth race, features $6,250 claimers going a mile. Favored Zonic drops in company, gets the rail and Irad Ortiz Jr. in the saddle. The third leg, Gulfstream's ninth race, is a $75,000 allowance optional claimer at five furlongs on the turf for 3-year-old fillies. The wide-open seven-horse field has a tepid 3-1 choice in Magical Soul from the barn of John Kimmel. Six of the seven horses are 6-1 or under.

The third race at Golden Gate Fields will serve as the fourth leg in the Stronach 5. The 5 ½ furlong maiden event for 3-year-old fillies has a 2-1 favorite in The Gee Factor, who drops out of maiden special weight company for trainer Doug O'Neill. Trainer Jonathan Wong will saddle first-time starter Old West.

The Stronach 5 wraps up with Gulfstream's 10th race, a five furlong claiming event for fillies and mares which have never won three races. It's a wide-open race with Wedontbelieveher the 7-2 morning-line favorite with Irad Ortiz Jr. in the saddle for Luis Ramirez. Fawkes Racing Inc.'s Ms Big Spring (9-2) draws the rail and jockey Tyler Gaffalione. Arindel's Lailoni enters off a 15-month layoff for trainer Gilberto Zerpa. Jose Ortiz is named.

Friday's races and sequence

· Leg One – Laurel Park 8th Race: (11 entries, 1 mile) 3:55 ET, 12:55 PT

· Leg Two – Gulfstream Park 8th Race: (8 entries, 1 mile) 4:11 ET, 1:11 PT

· Leg Three –Gulfstream Park 9th Race: (7 entries, 5 furlongs turf) 4:42 ET, 1:42 PT

· Leg Four –Golden Gate Fields 3rd Race: (8 entries, 5 ½ furlongs) 4:49 ET, 1:49 PT

· Leg Five –Gulfstream Park 10th Race: (10 entries, 6 furlongs) 5:13 ET, 2:13 PT

Fans can watch and wager on the action at 1/ST.COM/BET as well as stream all the action in English and Spanish at LaurelPark.com, SantaAnita.com, GulfstreamPark.com, and GoldenGateFields.com.

The Stronach 5 In the Money podcast, hosted by Jonathan Kinchen and Peter Thomas Fornatale, will be posted by 2 p.m. Thursday at InTheMoneyPodcast.com and will be available on iTunes and other major podcast distributors

The minimum wager on the multi-race, multi-track Stronach 5 is $1. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday.

If a change in racing surface is made after the wagering closes, each selection on any ticket will be considered a winning selection. If a betting interest is scratched, that selection will be substituted with the favorite in the win pool when wagering closes.

The Maryland Jockey Club serves as host of the Stronach 5.

The post Friday’s Stronach 5 Features Action From Three Racetracks appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Romans: Historical Horse Racing A Game-Changer For Good In Kentucky

As a second-generation horse trainer and Kentuckian, my entire life has been spent in Thoroughbred racing. I've seen Kentucky racing at its finest, and I've seen how quickly out-of-state competition can render us increasingly irrelevant. Right now Kentucky is at the top. But it doesn't have to stay that way.

I currently have 50 employees and do business with more than 100 vendors in Kentucky alone. Without Historical Horse Racing (HHR) revenue supplementing the purses for which our horses compete, many of those jobs will have to leave the state, as will our business with all those area vendors.

People forget, but it wasn't that long ago that Kentucky racing was badly hemorrhaging amid regional and national competition for horses. As more horse owners and trainers opted to race at tracks with purses fueled by slots and casino gaming, Ellis Park's summer meet and Turfway Park's winter racing were on life support. Even legendary Churchill Downs and Keeneland struggled with a profound horse shortage. Our breeding farms suffered from an exodus of mares they'd previously boarded, leaving the Bluegrass for states with more meaningful incentives – supported by revenue from racinos and casinos – for horses foaled in those jurisdictions.

First introduced by then-struggling Kentucky Downs in 2011, Historical Horse Racing proved the game-changer for good, reversing the downward spiral for Kentucky's signature industry. HHR is not a subsidy for horse racing. It's an innovative, racing-based product that reinvests in our iconic industry. This is one of those win-win-win situations that has benefitted the whole state. It has sparked significant economic development and creates and preserves jobs.

Purses are the universal language of horsemen. We follow the money. And where our horses go, so go the jobs. American horse racing is not the sport of kings. It's the sport of thousands of stables operating as local businesses employing real people in communities across the country.

Horse racing is an extremely labor-intensive business; you're never going to automate caring for a horse. And that's a good thing. We want it to be labor intensive and give people the opportunity to work in our industry.

Because of Historical Horse Racing and combined with our quality of life and affordable housing, Kentucky is now the mecca for horsemen. Trainers and jockeys on both coasts are increasing their presence in Kentucky, if not making it their primary base. Ellis Park and Turfway's barns are full for their meets, as are area training centers. The horses occupying those stalls reflect added jobs.

Within the short period of time in which it has been up and running, HHR has completely changed the dynamics of racing on a national level, with Kentucky once more at the forefront.

This provides a huge boost for the entire economy of Kentucky, not only horse racing. Just ask the mayors and county judge executives in Henderson and Simpson counties what HHR has meant for their communities. Historical Horse Racing has brought entertainment dollars back to Kentucky, with HHR operations themselves employing 1,400 people in six cities. Our racetracks have invested nearly $1 billion the past 10 years in capital projects with another $600 million planned.

Make no mistake, that will change for the worse if the Kentucky Legislature doesn't act to protect HHR. It needs to follow the simple blueprint the Kentucky Supreme Court provided to address its constitutionality concern.

It is not hyperbole to say three of our five thoroughbred tracks will close without HHR: Ellis Park, Turfway Park and Kentucky Downs. Harness racing will be history. Jobs will evaporate, millions of economic development and tourism dollars lost.

Whether you approve of alternative gaming or not, it is right here in our market — just across the border in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia and not far away in Pennsylvania. The majority of Kentucky's population can get to a casino to gamble within 30 minutes.

Kentucky's horse industry has a $5.2 billion economic impact and employs 60,000 people directly or indirectly. The commonwealth's racetracks pay more than $100 million annually in state and local taxes. Out-of-state money flows into Kentucky's coffers as a result of horse racing and its economic driver, HHR.

Do we want to needlessly sacrifice that?

It's important to have a year-round, consistent racing circuit in Kentucky. Without HHR, Kentucky racing will be an afterthought in a very quick period of time. Legislators must ask themselves: Can we afford that?

Dale Romans has trained in his native Kentucky since 1986, racing extensively at the commonwealth's five thoroughbred tracks and reigning as Churchill Downs' all-time win leader for 2 1/2 years until being surpassed by Steve Asmussen last June. Romans, the recipient of the 2012 trainer Eclipse Award, has won 2,076 races, including the 2011 Preakness Stakes with Shackleford and three Breeders' Cup races. He is a vice president of the Kentucky HBPA, which represents owners and trainers at the state's thoroughbred tracks.

The post Romans: Historical Horse Racing A Game-Changer For Good In Kentucky appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Yet Another Horse Racing Bill Filed in Georgia

In what has become a nearly annual long-shot endeavor in Georgia, legislation has been filed to legalize pari-mutuel horse racing.

The latest bill, SB30, was introduced Jan. 27 by Senator Brandon Beach, (R-Alpharetta). It shares the same title as the Rural Georgia Jobs and Growth Act that he filed during the 2019-20 legislative session.

The 51-page bill would create a state racing commission that would have the power to issue licenses for up to three racetracks situated at least 125 miles apart that would be required to host 60-date minimum race meets (unless the licensees can demonstrate via waiver application a need to reduce the dates requirement to 45).

The bill includes provisions for historical horse race (HHR) gaming, simulcasting, and advance-deposit wagering.

The initial 10-year licenses would be up for bid at $50 million each, and could be renewed thereafter for $250 million.

Another stipulation mandates that tracks within 50 miles of a major international airport would need to have a minimum initial investment of $250 million per facility. If further away from a major airport, the minimum investment would be $125 million.

Entrepreneurs who are entirely new to the racetrack business need not apply, as per a clause in the bill that states, “No application for the equestrian facility shall be considered unless the applicant, a majority of its owners who individually possess at least 5% of the applicant's stock or membership, or its management, can demonstrate a successful history of operating at least one horse racing track in one of the previous five years from the date of the application.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), two other pieces of gambling-related legislation have also been field recently. One would put a question on an upcoming ballot asking Georgia voters whether they support allowing casinos in the state. The other would legalize online sports betting.

The stumbling block to getting pari-mutuel laws enacted in Georgia–as it has been for the past three decades since Georgia's lottery became legal–has nothing to do with a lack of enthusiasm for horses. The difficulty has always been rounding up enough elected officials who are willing to support expanded gambling in a state where moral objections to it run high and religious conservatism carries considerable clout.

The AJC reported that “Adding casino gambling or horse racing would require Georgians to approve a constitutional amendment allowing the expansion…. Sports betting supporters said the resolution is not needed to allow sports betting. That difference is important. A bill only requires that more than half of each chamber support a measure to make it to the governor's desk. Constitutional amendments need two-thirds of each chamber to clear the General Assembly–a tall ask from the Legislature–and then a majority vote in an election.”

The post Yet Another Horse Racing Bill Filed in Georgia appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post