October, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Houston Racing Festival Highlights 2023 Sam Houston Stakes Schedule

Live racing returns to Sam Houston Race Park Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 with several changes planned for its 43-day Thoroughbred meet. The Thoroughbred meet will feature afternoon racing on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00 p.m. CST. Holiday Monday racing, also at 1:00 p.m., will take place on Martin Luther King Day and President's Day.

The Houston Racing Festival highlights the stakes schedule and will be contested Saturday, Jan. 28 with a 1:00 p.m. first post. The 2023 edition will offer five stakes races, anchored by the $300,000 GIII Houston Ladies Classic S. and the $200,000 GIII John B. Connally Turf S. The $100,000 Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile S., $100,000 Bara Lass S. and $100,000 Groovy S. will be included on the undercard.

“The new schedule and start times present an opportunity to engage with our loyal simulcast guests and attract new fans with daytime racing,” said Frank Hopf, Sam Houston Race Park's Assistant General Manager. “Moving our stakes races and promotions to the afternoons will provide new opportunities for everyone.”

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Arc Champ Torquator Tasso Retired To Auenquelle

Torquator Tasso (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}–Tijuana {Ger}, by Toylsome {GB}), the 2021 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero, has been retired from racing. As previously announced, the chestnut will stand at Gestut Auenquelle. Connections had originally been mulling a start in the G1 Japan Cup, but opted to retire the Marcel Weiss runner.

Weiss confirmed: “We are grateful that he enjoyed such an outstanding career and that he has come back safe and sound. We always said he would retire if he ran well.

“Frankie could not go forward too fast, otherwise Tasso would not have anything left at the end of the race. He rode exactly according to plan and did everything right.

“He is the horse of a lifetime and deserves a long and happy career at stud.”

A winner of the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin as a sophomore in 2020, the P. H. Vandeberg-bred turned €24,000 BBAG October Mixed Sale graduate would enjoy his finest year on the track at four. A colourbearer for Gestut Auenquelle, he added the G2 Hansa Preis before running second to subsequent 2022 Arc heroine Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin, prior to his Arc heroics at 71-1.

On the board in four of his five starts this term, he did take the G2 Grosser Hansa-Preis, before second-place efforts in the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. and back in Germany in the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden. The half-brother to dual Group 3 winner Tunnes (Ger) (Guiliani {Ire}) signed off his career with a close third in the Arc to Alpinista and Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}), and retires with a mark of 16-6-5-2, and earnings of $4,737,917.

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Longtime Horseman Jack Willis Dies

Clarence H. Willis III, better known as Jack, a longtime horseman and assistant in racing on the East Coast, died Monday at the age of 81.

Willis worked for the prominent Bostwick family in Aiken, SC before going on to work for the Phipps family under trainer Angel Penna, Sr. in the 1980s. He oversaw all of the powerhouse stable's yearlings and some layups in Aiken before moving north to help manage the Phippses' racing stable on the New York circuit of Belmont and Saratoga.

Some of the more well-known horses Willis worked with during that period included multiple Grade I-winning millionaire and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion Dancing Spree (Nijinsky), Grade I winner Time for a Change (Damascus) and Roselawn Farm/Airdrie Stud stallion Turkey Shoot (Seattle Slew).

In his later years, Willis went on to drive transport vans for Brook Ledge Horse Transportation before retiring to Florida to sell insurance.

“Jack was a good horseman and a friend to all. He was loyal and had a good sense of humor. I owe my entering horse racing to him,” said Jean Bickley, racing manager for Peter Brant.

Willis is survived by his wife of 50 years, Miryam, and their two sons, Steve and Jack.

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Laurel Park: Three Thursday Race Dates Switched For Mondays In November

The Maryland Jockey Club, with approval from the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and the Maryland Racing Commission, will move three Thursday racing dates to Mondays in November.

Programs scheduled for Nov. 3, 10 and 17 will move to Nov. 7, 14 and 21, respectively. As usual, there will be live racing Thursday, Nov. 24, which is Thanksgiving Day.

The original plan included October as well, but logistically the four programs could not be switched in time. MJC Acting President Mike Rogers said he wants to see whether pari-mutuel handle grows on Mondays when Parx Racing, another Mid-Atlantic track, offers live racing, and there are fewer overall signals.

Rogers said he would have preferred a larger sample size, but that if it proves a success, the MJC would look at racing Mondays when there are four-day race weeks in 2023.

The MTHA Board of Directors at its meeting Sept. 29 voted to request that next year's racing schedule only be approved through May given uncertainty over the timeline of the redevelopment of both Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course.

The post Laurel Park: Three Thursday Race Dates Switched For Mondays In November appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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