March, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Laurel’s Spring Meet Features Seven Stakes Worth $750,000

Laurel Park will offer seven stakes worth $750,000 in purses, including automatic qualifiers for the Preakness Stakes (G1) and Black-Eyed Susan (G2), Saturday, April 17 as part of its upcoming spring meet.

The 19-day spring meet opens Thursday, April 1 and runs through Sunday, May 2, serving as a bridge between Laurel's ongoing winter meet, which began Jan. 1, and the Preakness Meet at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Racing will be conducted Thursday through Sunday during the spring meet, with the exception of Easter Sunday, April 4. Post time will be 12:40 p.m. with a special 12:15 p.m. post on Kentucky Derby day, Saturday, May 1.

Co-headlining the stakes program are the $125,000 Federico Tesio for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles and the $125,000 Weber City Miss for 3-year-old fillies at about 1 1/16 miles. The Tesio serves as a 'Win and In' qualifier for Triple Crown-nominated horses to the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, the 146th Preakness May 15, and the Weber City Miss is a 'Win and In' event for the 97th Black-Eyed Susan May 14.

Last year's Tesio winner, Wertheimer and Frere's homebred Happy Saver, went on to win the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) against older horses in his subsequent start to complete a perfect 4-0 sophomore campaign.

Sprinters 3 and up will go six furlongs in the $100,000 Primonetta for females and seven furlongs in the $100,000 Frank Y. Whiteley. Laurel's world-class turf course is scheduled to host its first stakes of the season – the $100,000 Dahlia for fillies and mares 3 and older and $100,000 Henry S. Clark for 3-year-olds and up, both going one mile, and the $100,000 King T. Leatherbury for 3-year-olds and up sprinting five furlongs.

Live racing returns to Laurel Park with an eight-race program Friday, March 5. The winter meet runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sunday, March 28.

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Polish Champion Relocates To France

Inter Royal Lady (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), champion of her generation in Poland in 2019 and 2020, will continue her career in France under the care of Arc-winning conditioner Jean-Claude Rouget, according to information on the France Galop website.

The daughter of Fearn Royal (Ire) (Ali-Royal {Ire}) was perfect and untested in six juvenile appearances and ran her overall winning streak to nine before tasting defeat for the first time when beaten a half-length by Night Thunder (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}) in the Westminster Derby (2400 metres) at Sluzewiec Racecourse in Warsaw last July.

Inter Royal Lady returned to winning ways with a 3/4-length success in the Nagroda Liry (Polish Oaks) the following month (see below) and was given big-race entries for the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, won by the Rouget-trained Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), and the G1 Prix de l'Opera. She was ultimately allowed to take her chance against the likes of next-out Breeders' Cup winners Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) and Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) in the Opera, and while never likely over the unsuitably soft ground, Inter Royal Lady finished a respectable eighth of the 12 runners, beaten just over six lengths.

Bred by Fergus Cousins, Inter Royal Lady was bought back on a bid of €22,000 when offered as a weanling at Goffs in November 2017. She was subsequently knocked down to Bobby O'Ryan, agent for owner Slawomir Pegza, from the Ballybin Stud draft at the 2018 Goffs Sportsman's sale and was trained in Poland by Adam Wyrzyk.

WATCH: Inter Royal Lady wins the 2020 Nagroda Liry (Polish Oaks)

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Godolphin Colt Earns Kentucky Derby Points

5th-Kempton, £38,000, Cond, 3-3, 3yo, 8f (AWT), 1:38.12, st/sl.
HIGHLAND AVENUE (IRE) (c, 3, Dubawi {Ire}–Lumiere {GB} {Hwt. 2yo Filly-Eng & G1SW-Eng, $329,674}, by Shamardal), a Jan. 30 last-out winner over course and distance, employed patient tactics in rear for the most part of a contest carrying points towards a Kentucky Derby invitation. Making eyecatching headway along the far-side rail in the straight, the 4-9 lock gained an edge approaching the eighth pole and was ridden out in the latter stages to deny 200-1 chance Sergeant Tibbs (GB) (Bobby's Kitten) by 1 3/4 lengths. Highland Avenue therefore earns 20 points towards the Kentucky Derby. Kin to a 2-year-old filly by Galileo {Ire}) and a yearling filly by Sea the Stars (Ire), he is the first of three foals and lone performer out of G1 Cheveley Park S. winner Lumiere (GB) (Shamardal), herself a full-sister to GI E.P. Taylor S. victric Sheikha Reika (Fr). Lifetime Record: 3-2-1-0, $39,342.
O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Charlie Appleby.

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Report: The Difference Between ‘Training’ And ‘Abuse’ Not Always Clear

The way horsemen and the public think about training and abuse is changing. In some cases, the line is clear, but in others, it's a more subjective question, according to a recent report from The Horse.

Though equine training methods differ between breed and discipline, certain practices can be considered abusive regardless of the goal. In the past, more attention has been paid to getting a horse to submit to a rider's will than to ensuring a horse's welfare is protected. Situations that create obvious pain like tying a horse's head down or to the side, rollkur, or too-tight nosebands are one kind of abuse. The Horse reports than in other cases, abuse is the absence of something; keeping horses in stalls with no social interaction as punishment, or limiting diets can also be considered a type of abuse.

Often, horses subjected to these methods are emotional scapegoats for a stressed trainer, or they may be pushed to achieve a particular financial or performance result. There is also a disconnect between some horsemen about certain training tactics that are overlooked as things that have “always been done.”

Horse owners may be reluctant to speak up against perceived abuse as they feel the professional knows what is best for the horse.

A horse in an abusive training situation may be at increased risk of harm and even death, as the horse may injure itself while in training or colic from the stress. Generally speaking, The Horse reports, physical and mental welfare of horses is becoming better understood and that understanding is guiding changes in philosophies and training methods.