December, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Half-Sister to McKulick in Line For Wolverhampton Debut

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Tuesday's Observations features a half-sister to Grade I winner McKulick.

18.30 Wolverhampton, £9,980, Mdn, 2yo, 7f 36y (AWT)
Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum's ROBEENA (GB) (Calyx {GB}), one of two debutantes representing Roger Varian, is a homebred half-sister to three black-type performers headed by last year's GI Belmont Oaks Invitational heroine McKulick (GB) (Frankel {GB}). She encounters 11 rivals which include Yuesheng Zhang's 170,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 yearling Superb Force (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}), who is an Andrew Balding-trained half-brother to MG1SW sire Best Solution (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud victor El Bodegon (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}).

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Turfway Park’s Winter/Spring Stakes Schedule Led By $700,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks

The Turfway Park Holiday Meet continues to unfold in a flurry of festive fervor but as the calendar turns, the Winter/Spring Meet will maintain high purses with a lucrative stakes schedule led by the March 23, $700,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks (Grade 3), a stop on the Road to Kentucky Derby 150.

During the 52-day stand, the Winter/Spring Meet will showcase a total of 19 stakes races. The highlight is annually Jeff Ruby Steaks Day, featuring six stakes contests, including the 53rd running of the 1 1/8-mile Jeff Ruby Steaks. Supporting stakes events on the card will be the $300,000 TwinSpires Ky Cup Classic (Listed), the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks – a Road to the Kentucky Oaks Championship Series Race, the $250,000 Animal Kingdom Stakes, the $250,000 Latonia Stakes and the $250,000 Rushaway Stakes.

The Road to the Kentucky Derby's first stop at the Florence oval will be three weeks earlier on Saturday, March 2 for the $150,000 John Battaglia Memorial (Listed). One day prior, fillies on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks will be in action for the $150,000 Cincinnati Trophy Stakes.

Another spotlight race will be the 26th running of the Jan. 13, $125,000 Likely Exchange Stakes, which will mark the final opportunity in the “Make Your Mare” series, in partnership with Claiborne Farm. The top 3 finishers of the race will receive $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 in credits towards a future stallion mating at the farm. The other two races in the series are the $125,000 Holiday Inaugural and the $125,000 My Charmer Stakes.

Similar to the Holiday Meet, racing will continue on a Wednesday-Saturday schedule with daily first posts of 5:55 p.m. (all times Eastern), except Jeff Ruby Steaks Day, which will start at 12:45 p.m.

Reservations and more information about live racing and gaming from Turfway Park can be found on www.Turfway.com.

Below is the full stakes schedule (purse totals all include funds from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund):

Date	Race Name	Running	Age	Distance	Purse
Saturday, Jan. 6	The Turfway Preview	29	3yo	6 1/2F	$125,000
Saturday, Jan. 13	The Likely Exchange	26	FM 4&up	1M	$125,000
Saturday, Jan 20	The Leonatus Stakes	34	3yo	1M	$125,000
Saturday, Jan. 27	The Wishing Well	31	FM 4&up	6 1/2F	$125,000
Saturday, Feb. 3	The Forego	40	4yo and up	6 1/2F	$125,000
Saturday, Feb. 10	The Valdale	37	F 3yo	6 1/2F	$125,000
Saturday, Feb. 17	The Dust Commander	33	4yo and up	1 1/16M	$125,000
Saturday, Feb. 24	The Wintergreen	38	FM 4&up	1M	$125,000
Friday, March 1	The Cincinnati Trophy	42	F 3yo	1M	$150,000
Saturday, March 2	The John Battaglia Memorial (Listed)	42	3yo	1 1/16M	$150,000
Saturday, March 9	The Big Daddy AKA The Richard S. Leigh Memorial	3	4yo and up	6F	$125,000
Saturday, March 16	The Queen	28	FM 4&up	6F	$125,000
Saturday, March 23	The Latonia	42	FM 4&up	1 1/16M	$250,000
Saturday, March 23	The TwinSpires Kentucky Cup Classic (Listed)	24	4yo and up	1 1/8M	$300,000
Saturday, March 23	The Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3)	53	3yo	1 1/8M	$700,000
Saturday, March 23	The Rushaway	37	3yo	1 1/16M	$250,000
Saturday, March 23	The Bourbonette Oaks (Listed)	42	F 3yo	1 1/16M	$300,000
Saturday, March 23	The Animal Kingdom	38	3yo	6F	$250,000
Saturday, March 30	The Serena's Song	3	F 3yo	6F	$125,000

The post Turfway Park’s Winter/Spring Stakes Schedule Led By $700,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Pletcher, Repole Lose Another Round in Fight to Overturn Hopeful DQ

Members of the New York Gaming Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to uphold a recommendation from a hearing officer that Forte (Violence) be disqualified from his victory in the 2022 GI Hopeful S. In the Hopeful, Forte tested positive for the prohibited substance meloxicam, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication.

The case has moved slowly since the Sept. 2022 race. It took a eight months for the New York Gaming Commission to make the finding public and when it did the stewards disqualified Forte, fined Pletcher $1,000 and suspended him for ten days. Pletcher and owners Mike Repole and Vinnie Viola appealed the stewards' ruling, which meant the matter was sent to a hearing officer, Clark Petschek. The session with the hearing officer was held in July and Petschek issued his report on Sept. 30. Petschek upheld the original findings of the stewards, the fine, the suspension and the disqualification.

It is within the commission's right to reject the hearing officer's recommendations but, instead, it voted unanimously to uphold them.

It was noted that the owners of Hopeful runner-up, Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt, appeared at the hearing to support the decision to disqualify Forte.

“They could have made the decision the day after the hearing,” Repole said. “I guess they must have done a lot of extensive work the last six, seven months. Instead, they took six months to state the obvious. We knew what was going to happen. We got just what we expected. They did what they thought they needed to do. We knew there was a zero percent chance this was going to get overturned.”

It's unlikely that Tuesday's ruling by the New York Gaming Commission will be the last word on the Forte matter. The Forte team can now take their case to the courts and will like file an appeal within the New York court system. Repole has vowed to spend whatever it takes to get the Hopeful decision overturned.

“We plan on taking this further and we knew we were going to get to this point,” he said. “Under HISA rules, this isn't even a violation. We are super confident that common sense will prevail and people will realize we put in this governing body in HISA to make sure people are ethical and play by the rules of the sport. Any real process that follows common sense will easily see it the same way and we will prevail.”

The post Pletcher, Repole Lose Another Round in Fight to Overturn Hopeful DQ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Oaklawn Park Confidential: Track Trends, Top Trainers and Jockeys to Help You Win at the 2024 Meet

Some of the best winter dirt racing in North America is coming to the Midwest with the opening of the Oaklawn Park meet on Friday, Dec. 8. The 2023-24 season will extend until May 4, when the Oaklawn closes on the same day as the 150th Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve.