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Del Mar Will Increase Purses By 10 Percent, Add Stakes Race Back To Calendar

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club announced Thursday a 10 percent purse increase after a solid opening span of racing days during the month of July. The increase will be retroactive back to the track's first day, July 10.

Del Mar also announced the addition of a stakes race to its calendar – the $75,000 Del Mar Juvenile Filly Turf, a one-mile spin on the grass for 2-year-old fillies that will be held on Sunday, Sept. 6. The race had been a regular feature here the previous eight years, but had been dropped from the original stakes schedule due to belt tightening measures.

Between July 10 and July 27 Del Mar conducted seven days of racing and — though it has not had fans on board any of those days as a safety measure tied to the coronavirus pandemic — it saw wagering amounting to $133,841,412 flow from its online and satellite services, an increase of more than 5 percent over similar dates last year.

“Our horsemen have been terrific and our customers have responded very positively to what we're presenting,” said Tom Robbins, Del Mar's executive vice president for racing. “We've been running either 11- or 10-race cards and our field size is up to 8.6 in the early going. We're very pleased to offer this purse boost in conjunction with how the meet has unfolded so far.”

Last summer the track's average field size finished at 8.0 per race.

Del Mar's summer season is scheduled through Labor Day Monday, September 7 with racing on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

However, in response to the cancellation of racing on its second week, the track added Monday racing on July 27 with a 10-race card that drew a solid $11.6 million in wagers. Del Mar officials have indicated that they plan to make up their second and third missing days from week two with an added race day and additional races on scheduled cards.

“We are pleased to announce this well-deserved purse increase to the horsemen and women competing at Del Mar,” said Thoroughbred of Owners of California chairman Nick Alexander. “It is very encouraging to see the positive response at the entry box and from bettors on Del Mar's races. We look forward to continuing to partner with management on another world-class race meet at Del Mar.”

The track returns to action Friday with six stakes races planned over the three-day weekend. Among the upcoming highlights are the Grade I, $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs and the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at a mile and one-sixteenth for 3-year-olds, both this Saturday. The Shared Belief will be the first time the track has offered a “points” race for the Kentucky Derby, which this year has been shifted from the first Saturday in May to the first Saturday in September.

Additionally, this forthcoming weekend will offer the foremost race at the stand for older fillies and mares, the Grade I, $250,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Sunday.

First post on all days throughout the meeting is 2 p.m.

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Grade 1-Winning Sprinter Hog Creek Hustle To Try Grass At Ellis Park

Hog Creek Hustle will have a homecoming of sorts when the 4-year-old colt runs in Sunday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park.

Something Special Racing's Hog Creek Hustle started off his racing career with a bang two years ago at Ellis Park, rallying from near-last at five-eighths of a mile to win his debut. That proved a banner 2-year-old crop of Ellis-raced horses in 2018, with Hog Creek Hustle the next year taking Belmont Park's Woody Stephens to join Serengeti Empress (Kentucky Oaks), Knicks Go (Claiborne Breeders' Futurity) and Henley's Joy (Belmont Derby) as the winners of Grade 1 races, those designated as the best races in America. (Volatile, another current 4-year-old, didn't race at Ellis at 2 but won his career debut at the track last year and recently won Saratoga's Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt.)

“He broke his maiden there — it's going to be old-home week” at Ellis Park, said Patty Tipton, Hog Creek Hustle's co-owner who grew up in Hog Creek, Ky. and now lives in Lexington. “I hope Como's is open.”

(Yes, House of Como is open for business, though the iconic Evansville eatery just a few furlongs from Ellis Park is closed on Sundays.)

Hog Creek Hustle will try to gain his first victory since the seven-furlong Woody Stephens, which provided trainer Vickie Foley with her first Grade 1 victory. The colt has run well in most of his starts since then while tackling some of the toughest sprinters and milers in the country. That includes his nose defeat in Saratoga's Grade 1 Allen Jerkens last summer.

In search of regaining the Hog Creek karma, Foley is trying the colt on the grass for the first time in the Preview Tourist Mile. The stakes' winner gets an entry fees-paid spot in Kentucky Downs' $750,000 Tourist Mile on Sept. 7. Sunday's Preview Day features five $100,000 turf stakes that all are automatic qualifiers for the corresponding races at Kentucky Downs, for which the fields will be set Thursday. The Ellis Park stakes are funded by purse money generated at Kentucky Downs as part of an arrangement with the tracks' horsemen's group, the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association.

Hog Creek Hustle will be racing around two turns Sunday for the first time since he finished eighth in last year's Louisiana Derby, ending any Kentucky Derby aspirations that had been fueled by his second- and fourth-place finishes in a pair of earlier prep races in New Orleans. Both those graded stakes were won by War of Will, the eventual Preakness winner who several weeks ago became a Grade 1 winner on dirt and turf after taking Keeneland's Maker's Mark Mile on grass.

“We've been wanting to try him on turf,” Foley said. “I think that's a good place to try him and see how he handles it. If we're ever going to try him, this is the time…. He kind of has some high action. We're hoping he'll like it. And if he's going to like it at all, I think he'll like it at Ellis, because you don't have to be a true turf horse to run on that track.”

Tipton, one of five partners in the horse, is hoping grass does for Hog Creek Hustle what it did for War of Will in a career reboot.

“He ran right behind War of Will, and War of Will took to the turf,” she said. “We're excited to see what he can do.”

Hog Creek Hustle will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano, whose 12 victories lead the Ellis meet, with Miguel Mena second in the standings with eight.

The 130-mile ship from Churchill Downs Sunday might seem like a mere jog around the block to the well-traveled Hog Creek Hustle, who this year has left his home base to run in Florida, Arkansas and most recently New York. While the Big Apple previously was very good to the colt, that was not the case in Belmont Park's prestigious Metropolitan Mile, when he was last of eight but still lost by only a combined 6 1/2 lengths to the impressive front-runner Vekoma.

“He stumbled pretty badly out of the gate and pulled a back shoe off,” Foley said. “The jock took him to the inside, which the instructions were to stay on the outside. He still ran a good race against those kind of horses.”

Hog Creek Hustle has a 3-5-2 record in 18 starts for earnings of $638,967 along with priceless experiences for his crew.

“It's just been a very exciting adventure,” said Tipton, who with her partners purchased Hog Creek Hustle for $150,000 at Keeneland's 2017 September yearling sale. “We had no idea this horse was going to take us here. But he has. We want him to win again, because he hasn't won since the Woody Stephens. He's done really well as far as being second and third and he's been to every racetrack in America, almost. He's been a hard-knocking horse. I think this horse can run on the turf. I think he will love the mile on the turf. I think he'll be happy to be back home where he broke his maiden.”

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Half-Brother To Tepin Set To Debut Friday In Ireland

Harvard, a half-brother to Eclipse Award winner Tepin, will make his debut on Friday at Leopardstown in Ireland, Racing Post reports.

The 2-year-old Galileo colt will race for the Coolmore partnership of Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Michael Tabor, and he is trained by Aidan O'Brien. Wayne Lordan will have the mount.

The entries for the race can be viewed here.

Coolmore has invested heavily into the accolades of Tepin and her bloodline since the mare's Hall of Fame-caliber racing career. The group privately purchased her dam, the unraced Stravinsky mare Life Happened, in 2016. A year later, they dropped $8 million to take Tepin herself back to Europe, where both mother and daughter have joined the broodmare band of Coolmore's all-world sire Galileo.

In addition to Tepin, Life Happened is the dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Vyjack and Grade 2-placed Prime Cut. She was a finalist for Kentucky Broodmare of the Year in 2016.

Tepin, a 9-year-old Bernstein mare, was named champion turf female in 2015 and 2016, with notable victories in the 2015 Breeders' Cup Mile at Keeneland, as well as the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, Jenny Wiley Stakes, First Lady Stakes, and Just a Game Stakes. Arguably her greatest achievement, though, came when she traveled to England for the world-class Royal Ascot meet and beat the world's best turf milers – male or female – in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes.

Tepin retired with 13 wins in 23 starts for earnings of $4,437,918. She sold to Coolmore in 2017 pregnant to leading sire Curlin, and she produced a filly for Coolmore the following year.

Harvard is the second Irish-born foal out of Life Happened to reach the racetrack, following the War Front filly Repossession, who sold to LNJ Foxwoods as a yearling for $750,000 and finished out of the money in her lone start as a juvenile last year.

Grayson Grass Challenge: Indiana Grand Partners With Research Foundation For Handicapping Challenge

Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation announced today that it will be the beneficiary of the “Grayson Grass Challenge,” sponsored by Indiana Grand Racing & Casino.

The Grayson Grass Challenge will be a five-week handicapping contest starting the week of August 10 whereby participants in the challenge submit selections on two specified turf races each week at Indiana Grand through the week of September 7. Each contestant will be given a $500 bankroll provided by Indiana Grand, of which $100 can be wagered each week. The bankroll can be used for win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and superfecta wagers. At the end of the five weeks, all remaining bankroll plus winnings from the contestants will go to Grayson.

“Our sport is not possible without healthy horses, and Grayson funds research projects that facilitate wellness among all horses, including racehorses,” said Eric Halstrom, vice president and general manager of racing for Indiana Grand. “I wish our expert handicappers the best of luck in their efforts to raise money for such an important cause.”

“We are excited to work with Indiana Grand and all contest participants as part of the Grayson Grass Challenge,” said Jamie Haydon, president of Grayson. “We are thankful to all parties for their enthusiasm in supporting equine health and wellness.”

The field for the Grayson Grass Challenge will consist of four individuals: Nick Luck, international racing broadcaster; Gabe Prewitt, analyst for Scioto Downs and Pompano Park; Ellis Starr, national racing analyst for Equibase; and Daniel Tordjman, America's Best Racing handicapper and manager of Partnerships & Sponsorships. Indiana Grand will also participate with an entry of rotating picks from Nancy Holthus, paddock analyst; Rachel McLaughlin, racing analyst and production manager; and Bill Downes, track announcer.

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