Month: August 2021

$287,000 In Daily Purses For Maryland State Fair At Timonium; Opening Day Aug. 27

The Maryland State Fair and Agricultural Society, Inc. has announced the 2021 Thoroughbred racing schedule for the Timonium meet.  Running from Aug. 27 through Sept. 6, this year's seven days of racing held during the Maryland State Fair will offer purses of over $287,000 daily.

The meet will conduct the $125,000* Timonium Juvenile Stakes for 2-year-olds, going 6 ½ furlongs on August 29.  (*$75,000 guaranteed, plus $25,000 for Maryland-bred or Maryland-sired, plus $25,000 for Maryland-bred and Maryland-sired.) A $40,000 trainers' bonus will be offered this year.  Grooms awards to the best turned out in each race will also be awarded.

The Maryland State Fair thanks the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, the Maryland Jockey Club and the Maryland State Fair board for bringing this all to fruition.

Annual College Day at the Fair will take place on Aug. 27.  Ten $1,000 college scholarships are awarded to preregistered full time college students in attendance.  College Day is designed to attract young millennials to experience Thoroughbred racing and the Maryland State Fair

“Without the leadership of Gerry Brewster, chairman of our board, Donna Myers, president; Bill Marlow, race committee chairman; and the entire board of directors of the Maryland State Fair – these developments would not be possible.  We are particularly excited about twilight racing and College Day at the Fair on August 27, along with the August 29 running of the inaugural Timonium Juvenile Stakes and thank the sponsors and horsemen for supporting us,” stated Bill Reightler, director of racing operations.

Schedule for Timonium's seven days of Thoroughbred live racing:
August 27: Opening Day of meet. Post Time 3 pm
August 28 Post Time 12:40 pm
August 29 Inaugural running Timonium Juvenile Stakes. Post Time 12:40 pm
September 3-6 Live racing. Post Time 12:40 pm

Call racing secretary Georganne Hale for details at 443 506-6916.

The post $287,000 In Daily Purses For Maryland State Fair At Timonium; Opening Day Aug. 27 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Churchill Downs Releases All-Dirt Stakes Schedule For September, Fall Meets

Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., will present 22 stakes events that total $7.01 million during the second half of the year.

The 12-date September meet (Sept. 16-Oct. 3) will showcase 11 stakes races cumulatively worth $3.26 million, and the 21-date fall meet (Oct. 31-Nov. 28) will have 11 stakes events that total $3.75 million.

Racing at Churchill Downs during the 2021 September and fall meets will be exclusively run on the main dirt track. In July, Churchill Downs closed its stable area to install a new $10-million turf course that will be ready for turf racing to resume at the start of the 2022 spring meet.

Horsemen can return to Churchill Downs for stabling on Wednesday, Sept. 8, and the main track will be open for training the following day.

The stakes schedule for the ninth annual September meet will begin in primetime under the lights on Saturday, Sept. 18 with a quintet of races, including two important 1 1/16-mile fixtures for juveniles that could produce starters in next spring's Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (Grade 1) and the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1). The $300,000 Iroquois (G3) kicks off the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” series (Top 4 Points: 10-4-2-1), while the $300,000 Pocahontas (G2) starts the “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” (Top 4 Points: 10-4-2-1). Also, both races are Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge events, which means the winners will receive automatic berths in the starting gate for their respective Breeders' Cup races on Nov. 5 at Del Mar with full entry fees and travel expenses paid.

Distaff and Filly & Mare Sprint prospects may surface in a pair of Sept. 18 stakes for fillies and mares, the $400,000 Locust Grove (G3) over 1 1/16 miles and the $300,000 Open Mind (Listed) at six furlongs.

The $275,000 Louisville Thoroughbred Society, an open sprint for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs, wraps the Sept. 18 “Downs After Dark” stakes-laden program. It is one of six newly-created races. The others are the $275,000 Bourbon Trail (3-year-olds at 1 3/16 miles) on Sept. 25; $275,000 Harrods Creek (3-year-olds at seven furlongs) on Sept. 25; $160,000 Seneca Overnight Stakes (3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles) on Oct. 1; $200,000 Lively Shively (2-year-olds at 6 ½ furlongs) on Nov. 27; and $200,000 Fern Creek (2-year-old fillies at 6 ½ furlongs) on Nov. 27.

Other marque events during the September meet include the $275,000 Dogwood (G3) for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on Sept. 25. The eventual champion demale sprinter Covfefe used the race in 2019 as a springboard to a successful run in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita.

[Story Continues Below]

Closing weekend for the September Meet is anchored by the $400,000 Lukas Classic (G3) for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles and honors Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the iconic four-time winner of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks and conditioner of 26 Eclipse Award-winning champions who has been based at Churchill Downs' Barn 44 since 1989.

Also run on Saturday, Oct. 2, is the $300,000 Ack Ack (G3) for Dirt Mile prospects.

Churchill Downs' 132nd fall meet, which follows Keeneland's fall meet in Lexington, is once again anchored by the $750,000 Clark presented by Norton Healthcare (G1). The 1 1/8-mile test for 3-year-olds and up on “Black Friday,” Nov. 26 annually lures some of the top horses in North America and is one of six stakes events to be contested over Thanksgiving weekend.

2021 CHURCHILL DOWNS SEPTEMBER MEET STAKES SCHEDULE

Date Running Grade Purse Race Conditions Distance Surface
Saturday, Sept. 18 53rd II $300,000 Pocahontas 2yo f 1 1/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Sept. 18 37th III $400,000 Locust Grove 3&up, f&m 1 1/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Sept. 18 40th III $300,000 Iroquois 2yo 1 1/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Sept. 18 12th Listed $300,000 Open Mind 3&up, f&m 6 F Dirt
Saturday, Sept. 18 1st $275,000 Louisville Thoroughbred Society 3&up 6 F Dirt
Saturday, Sept. 25 46th Listed $275,000 Dogwood 3yo f 7 F Dirt
Saturday, Sept. 25 1st $275,000 Bourbon Trail 3yo 1 3/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Sept. 25 1st $275,000 Harrods Creek 3yo 7 F Dirt
Friday, Oct. 1 1st $160,000 Seneca Overnight Stakes 3yo f 1 1/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Oct. 2 8th III $400,000 Lukas Classic 3&up 1 1/8 M Dirt
Saturday, Oct. 2 29th III $300,000 Ack Ack 3&up 1 M Dirt

* All purses include prize money from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund 

2021 CHURCHILL DOWNS FALL MEET STAKES SCHEDULE 

Date Running Grade Purse Race Conditions Distance Surface
Sunday, Oct. 31 9th $200,000 Street Sense 2yo 1 1/16 M Dirt
Sunday, Oct. 31 9th $200,000 Rags to Riches 2yo f 1 1/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Nov. 6 13th $300,000 Bet On Sunshine 3&up 6 F Dirt
Saturday, Nov. 13 16th $300,000 Dream Supreme 3&up, f&m 6 F Dirt
Saturday, Nov. 20 36th III $300,000 Chilukki 3&up, f&m 1 M Dirt
Thursday, Nov. 25 106th II $500,000 Falls City 3&up, f&m 1 1/8 M Dirt
Friday, Nov. 26 147th I $750,000 Clark presented by Norton Healthcare 3&up 1 1/8 M Dirt
Saturday, Nov. 27 95th II $400,000 Kentucky Jockey Club 2yo 1 1/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Nov. 27 78th II $400,000 Golden Rod 2yo f 1 1/16 M Dirt
Saturday, Nov. 27 1st $200,000 Lively Shively 2yo 6 ½ F Dirt
Saturday, Nov. 27 1st $200,000 Fern Creek 2yo f 6 ½ F Dirt

 

* All purses include prize money from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund

The post Churchill Downs Releases All-Dirt Stakes Schedule For September, Fall Meets appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Mountaineer ‘Always Going To Be Home’ For Track’s All-Time Leader Deshawn Parker

Jockey Deshawn Parker has returned to Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in West Virginia in recent years to ride a horse or two, but the track's all-time leading jockey was a bit surprised when he was named to ride in eight of nine races on the Aug. 7 West Virginia Derby program.

“My agent told me we had horses going in, but this was a surprise,” said Parker, who is listed to ride Bourbon Thunder in the $500,000 Grade 3 Derby and Bourbon Calling in the $200,000 Grade 3 West Virginia Governor's Stakes, with mounts in four other stakes and two overnight events.

Parker, who raised his family in East Liverpool, Ohio, not far across the river from Mountaineer, and still has his home there, decided in late 2013 to leave the West Virginia track and branch out to Texas, Indiana and Kentucky. At the height of his Mountaineer success, Parker often would have mounts in all nine or 10 races, five nights a week.

Statistics provided by Brisnet.com show Parker has won an amazing 4,785 races from 28,221 starts at Mountaineer alone, and 5,886 overall. He leads all categories, which include stakes victories and earnings.

Parker, whose mounts have earned $75.7 million, first started riding for trainer John Semer at Mountaineer, and eventually landed in the barn of Dale Baird, the track's all-time leading trainer, and as of Aug. 4 Thoroughbred racing's all-time leading trainer with 9,445 wins. That set the stage for multiple years of more than 300 wins for Parker, who in 2011 won 400 races.

With Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen just a handful of wins away from eclipsing the late Baird's record, Parker reflected on his success with Baird at Mountaineer.

“It's going to break my heart,” Parker said. “People would say Dale was very hard to approach, but I know that once you got to know Dale, he was great. He would even ask me to go on trips with him to buy horses. I felt honored he wanted me to go with him. And remember, Dale only had one string of horses that would go back and forth between the track and his farm.”

[Story Continues Below]

Parker earlier this year received the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Award, which recognizes riders whose careers and personal character garner esteem for the individual and Thoroughbred racing. He was joined at Santa Anita Park in California by Luis M. Quinones, another Mountaineer veteran and riding champion who won the award in 2020 but whose ceremony was postponed because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“It worked out perfectly,” Parker said of the delay. “We both ended up at Santa Anita together. It was a great weekend.”

And he's happy to be spending this weekend with family and friends in his own back yard.

“Mountaineer is always going to be home,” Parker said. “I love the track and love the people. When the (purse) money started getting less and less, I made a choice between having to ride so many races and win so many races, or ride less and make more money.

“To this day people ask me how I could have stayed there that long. Well, I love it, and I don't have a bad thing to say about it. There are great people there, including the fans. Mountaineer boosted my career to where I never thought it could be.”

The post Mountaineer ‘Always Going To Be Home’ For Track’s All-Time Leader Deshawn Parker appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights