April, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Runhappy Santa Anita Derby Card Produces High Handle Number

The card for the 84th GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby produced all-sources pari-mutuel handle of $24,282,400 Saturday. This was the largest Santa Anita Derby day handle since 2007. In addition, fans returned to the Arcadia oval on a restricted basis, with 8,246 on-track for the 12-race program. It was the first time in over a year that fans were allowed back at Santa Anita since the COVID-19 pandemic began last winter.

Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}) saluted in the day's feature event, the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby for Hronis Racing and trainer John Sadler. Soothsay (Distorted Humor) gave trainer Richard Mandella his fourth GII Santa Anita Oaks for Claiborne Farm, Perry Bass II, Ramona Bass and Adele Dilschneider. Trainer Phil D'Amato leads in the trainers' standings with 29, one better than Bob Baffert. Flavien Prat holds a sizeable advantage in the jockeys' equivalent with 80 wins to 50 for Juan Hernandez.

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Deep Impact Filly Upsets Osaka Hai to Remain Unbeaten

Lei Papale (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), undefeated in five previous appearances, relished the soft going in the 2000-metre G1 Osaka Hai at Hanshin on Sunday, defeating several well-hyped Group 1 winners including 2020 Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). The Carrot Farm colourbearer is just the third horse in JRA history to claim a Group 1 title for older horses unbeaten after Fine Motion (Ire) (Danehill) in 2002 and Chrysoberyl (Jpn) (Gold Allure {Jpn}) in 2019.

Sent off as the fourth choice at 11-1, the bay was a touch slowly away, but soon skipped up to the head of the field and shouldered pacesetting duties. Allowed to bowl along as the rain continued, the 4-year-old filly covered an opening quarter in :23.50 and her half-mile split of :47.70 saw her still on an uncontested lead. She traveled 1200 metres in 1:12.60 and was still moving smoothly after a mile in 1:36.90. Steered off the fence for the stretch drive, Lei Papale displayed another gear and quickly scampered away from her rivals, none of whom appeared more than workmanlike on the soft ground with the exception of the rallying Mozu Bello (Jpn) (Deep Brillante {Jpn}), who flashed home for second.

The 4-5 favourite, Contrail settled in midpack while tracking 9-5 second choice and 2020 Japanese Champion Sprinter/Miler Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) for much of the contest. He began to improve on the backstretch and drew close to Gran Alegria with less than a half-mile remaining, as that pair moved in tandem and appeared poised to pounce on the winner. However their bids flattened out a bit late on, with Contrail three-parts of a length behind Mozu Bella and a neck to the good of Gran Alegria.

“I had always believed in her outstanding talent since her debut but of course it was a tough ask this time against a top class [field] after registering out first group-race victory [in December],” said pilot Yuga Kawada, who was winning his 17th JRA Group 1. “She felt good during the post parade and she was able to jump into her rhythm throughout the race without being pressed. I was able to shift her out without interfering the horses coming from behind for her stretch run as there was still plenty room between her and the rest of the field at the top of the stretch. And to still have the strength to find another gear over the turf condition today—she is an exceptional filly to keep her speed right to the end. Now that she's a Group 1 winner, expectations will suddenly be quite high from now on, but I hope to be able bring out her best in each race.”

Lei Papale did not make her racecourse debut until January of her 3-year-old season, but she handled a one-mile newcomer race at Kyoto, before returning on June 6 and taking a Hanshin affaire over the same distance. Upped to 1800 metres at Niigata in July, the bay continued to find the winner's circle, and back at Kyoto, the good-ground Ohara S. went her way on Oct. 18. Tried for the first time at the group level and going 2000 metres, the filly duly saluted in the Dec. 5 G3 Challenge Cup at Hanshin, her final start as a sophomore. The Osaka Hai was the first time she was tested over a soft turf course.

Pedigree Notes

The late Deep Impact's stakes winners stand at 172, with 138 group winners and Lei Papale's Osaka Hai victory brings his total of Group 1 winners to 48. Lei Papale is the third Group 1 winner for her broodmare sire Kurofune (Jpn) and first by Deep Impact. Although, the Deep Impact/Kurofune cross has already resulted in the winner's full-sister MGSW Shining Lei (Jpn), Japanese Group 3 hero Staphanos (Jpn), who placed five times at the highest level and two other group winners.

Shells Lei ran second in a pair of listed stakes at three and retired as a three-time winner. Bred exclusively with Deep Impact for her first four foals, the quartet of winners yielded G2 Hopeful S. and G3 CBC Sho winner Shining Lei as the best of them until Lei Papale, foal number eight and part of an octet of winners from nine to run. She has had fillies by Duramente (Jpn) and Daiwa Major (Jpn) in 2019 and 2020, and was covered by Real Impact (Jpn) last spring.

Second dam Oyster Ticket (Jpn) (Winning Ticket {Jpn}) also threw the GSP Encore Plus (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), the MSP Black Shell (Jpn) (Kurofune {Jpn}) and the SP Double Timpani (Jpn) (Sunday Silence). Farther back in the pedigree is 1968 Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Riki Eikan (Jpn), a colt by Never Beat (GB).

Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
OSAKA HAI-G1, ¥260,520,000, Hanshin, 4-4, 4yo/up, 2000mT, 2:01.60, sf.
1–LEI PAPALE (JPN), 121, f, 4, Deep Impact (Jpn)
         1st Dam: Shells Lei (Jpn) (MSP-Jpn, $823,464), by Kurofune
         2nd Dam: Oyster Ticket (Jpn), by Winning Ticket (Jpn)
         3rd Dam: Namura Pieris (Jpn), by Tosho Boy (Jpn)
1ST GROUP 1 WIN. O-Carrot Farm; B-Northern Farm (Jpn);
T-Tomokazu Takano; J-Yuga Kawada. ¥137,814,000. Lifetime
Record: 6-6-0-0. *Full to Shining Lei (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}),
MGSW-Jpn, $1,168,154. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple
   Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Mozu Bello (Jpn), 126, h, 5, Deep Brillante (Jpn)–Harlan's
Ruby, by Harlan's Holiday. O-Capital System; B-Murata Farm
(Jpn); ¥54,804,000.
3–Contrail (Jpn), 126, c, 4, Deep Impact (Jpn)–Rhodochrosite,
by Unbridled's Song. O-Shinji Maeda; B-North Hills (Jpn);
¥34,402,000.
Margins: 4, 3/4, NK. Odds: 11.20, 67.80, 0.80.
Also Ran: Gran Alegria (Jpn), Salios (Jpn), Cadenas (Jpn), Ardentlt (Jpn), Bravas (Jpn), Admire Virgo (Jpn), Persian Knight (Jpn), Crescendo Love (Jpn), Makahiki (Jpn), Happy Grin (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Frozen Assets Slot Machine

Normally getting your assets frozen would be a bad thing, but it’s not anymore. Frozen Assets is a 3-reel slot machine and it’s quite cool to play.

Frozen Assets can be played in one of five denominations. The machine will take nickels, quarters, fifty cents, dollars and five dollars. I was a little sad to see pennies weren’t an option. I like playing pennies when I want to unwind or test out a new casino game.

So, you have your typical three reels here. The idea is to build a snowman. He looks like Frosty the snowman. Every time you get a snowflake on the payline-with max coins played-you’ll fill up your snowman with snow a little more.

As you get snowflakes and build your personal snowman, your snowflake meter will increase. It’s located just below the snowman on the paytable display. Once your snowman is built and your snowflake meter is at or above 200, you win the snowman bonus.

However, Frozen Assets isn’t all positive. The reels also contain sun icons. When you receive a sun icon-again playing max credits-you’ll lose one point from the number above the snowman. You still will get a credit to your snowman bonus meter, so it’s not a complete loss.

In case you’re wondering, the snowman bonus starts off at 500. You’ll build up that nice bonus pot from there. Once you win it, the snowman bonus defaults back to 500.

Frozen Assets also has a wild symbol. It’s the penguin. The penguin icon can count as any symbol on the payline except for the snowflake and sun icons.

As you might expect, to win the big payday on Frozen Assets, you need to score three 7’s on the payline.

Playing this game is easy. It’s not an advanced slot machine. It’s just above your normal slot machine, because of the added bonus game involved. If you don’t want an advanced video slot machine, but don’t want the traditional one-armed bandit, Frozen Assets will fit the bill.

Like I said, the game is easy to play. After selecting your denomination, you select the number of credits to play. Frozen Assets has one payline that’s straight across the center of the screen. That’s another reason why I graded this game just above the traditional slot machine. There aren’t 30+ paylines involved.

Remember to always play max coins. If you don’t, why are you playing? You can’t unlock the special snowman game or the big jackpot if you play anything less than max coins. And unlike some other slot machines, this one only takes three credits to max out.

Kentucky State Veterinarian Weighing Options For In-State And Maryland EHV-1 Horses

From E.S. Rusty Ford, equine operations consultant at the office of the state veterinarian, Kentucky Department of Agriculture

Following are updates to the equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) incident at Blackwood Training Center in Woodford County, Kentucky.

We are also taking this opportunity to share with you our understanding of the latest developments at Laurel and Pimlico in Maryland.

Blackwood Training Center Woodford County Kentucky:

Results of testing on the samples (Nasal Swabs and Whole Blood EDTA) collected from each horse stabled in Barn B on Wednesday, March 31 have been reported negative for detection of EHV1 DNA by PCR testing. In addition to the testing that has been completed, the horses have been monitored daily and our findings support that it has been greater than 14 days since any horse in Barn B was last potentially exposed to a clinical case. Meeting the criteria above provided us the confidence needed to release the group of horses in barn B from restriction and allowed them to resume their normal training and racing activities beginning on Friday, April 2nd.

Barn A at Blackwood: Daily monitoring of the horses stabled in Barn A continues. There have been no additional fevers or other symptoms in the group, and we have tentatively scheduled the horses in Barn A to be sampled (nasal swabs and whole blood) and tested by PCR later next week.

Maryland:

Laurel/Pimlico

Published reports and conversations with animal health officials in MD, suggest the situation at Laurel continues to evolve as additional positive samples have been collected from non-clinical as well as a few horses exhibiting clinical signs. The Maryland state veterinarian and the Stronach Group have decided the plan moving forward is to only sample and test symptomatic horses in the affected barns. Currently, their criteria for quarantine release will be 21 days of no clinical signs reported. This plan relies strictly on grooms/trainers/vets to report fever or other evidence of illness, which in our opinion may result in lack of detection of circulating virus. This protocol is in direct contrast to the testing protocols we have developed in consultation with infectious disease experts; and which I feel has aided our ability to maintain racing schedules/calendars with minimal disruption and inconvenience to the majority of horsemen.

In light of the current information available to us, we are in the process of developing strategies to mitigate what would be considered an elevated risk to our populations here in Kentucky should Maryland release the imposed restrictions without diagnostically demonstrating the horses and environment are free of evidence of virus circulating.

The probability is that horses which have recently been (date to be determined) at Laurel or Pimlico, will require Kentucky's office of state veterinarian approval prior to entering Kentucky. These horses will likely be restricted and require veterinary examination and testing before being allowed to enter a Kentucky racetrack or sanctioned facility. This protocol has worked well in the past when we've had to address disease events in other states where horses were released from restrictions without testing.

I will be providing and distributing a general summary update late next week when results from the planned testing at Blackwood becomes available.

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