Tag: Horse Racing

Lone Star Meet Concludes With Solid Handle, Attendance Numbers

Lone Star Park concluded its 25th Thoroughbred Racing season on Sunday, July 11 handling a daily average of $1,693,866 in merged handle (Live on-track plus Export) and a daily average of $1,459,096 specifically in export, over the 48-day meet, which was their most since 2006 in both categories, not including last year's unique pandemic season.

Average daily grandstand attendance on weekends and holidays for the meet was just over 4,000 per day, which, when compared to similar days, was only a four percent decline from 2019.

“The attendance figures were a very positive takeaway for the meet” said Brandon Leigh, Lone Star Park's Director of Marketing & Player Development. “There is lots of momentum to build upon for next year, considering that a majority of our indoor reserved seating areas were limited to just 50 percent capacity this year.”

The on-track fans wagered a daily average of $234,770 in Live Handle, the most since 2018.

Boosted in part by the passage of House Bill 2436 last year, the total amount of purses paid out to horsemen during the 48-day season was $13,692,325, the highest level since 2005.

The highlight of the meet was undoubtedly Lone Star Million Day on Memorial Day, returning after a ten-year hiatus. The on-track fans wagered $904,299 in Live Handle, the most since Memorial Day in 2008. The Export Handle was $5,494,680, setting the all-time record for a single day at Lone Star Park, not including the 2004 Breeders' Cup.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen earned his 14th training title at Lone Star Park. He visited the winners circle 71 times from 344 starts. His earnings total for the season were $1,999,134. As of this writing, Asmussen is 19 wins away from becoming the all-time leading trainer in North America in history.

Jockey Stewart Elliott won his first Lone Star Park riding title. The top rider won 71 races from 317 starts and earned $1,807,735 in purse money.

Karl Broberg's End Zone Athletics' Inc. was tops in the owner category with a total of 40 wins from 184 starts. The stable earnings total was $797,651.

Lone Star Park's 2021 Fall Meeting of Champions begins Friday, September 17 and runs through Saturday, December 18.

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‘Improving 3-Year-Old’ Masqueparade Works Toward Jim Dandy

FTGGG Racing's graded stakes-winner Masqueparade breezed a half-mile in 49.23 seconds over Saratoga's fast main track Friday in preparation for the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy on July 31 at the Spa, a race in which he'll likely face Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality.

The Al Stall, Jr.,-trained son of second crop sire Upstart has made a gradual climb up the ladder since being elevated to first via disqualification from his fourth career start on March 20 at Fair Grounds.

Masqueparade followed with an 11 ¾-length optional-claiming win going nine furlongs at Churchill Downs before defeating graded stakes winners King Fury, Keepmeinind and Promise Keeper in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Ohio Derby on June 26 at Thistledown.

“He's an improving 3-year-old mentally, physically and figure wise and that's why we're taking our chance in a race like the Jim Dandy,” Stall, Jr. said. “He's easy on himself. He won't grab the bit and go down there in 47 and change and gallop out in a minute, which is good at this point in time. It might help his longevity.”

Stall, Jr. said he had considered the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on July 17 at Monmouth Park and the Grade 2 West Virginia Derby on 7 at Mountaineer, but decided the Jim Dandy provided the best opportunity.

“I think with natural selection they'll sort themselves out,” Stall, Jr. said of the 3-year-old crop. “There's plenty to choose from. The Haskell will tell us a lot, the Jim Dandy will tell us a lot, West Virginia might tell us something moving forward. The Haskell came up too close, but honestly, we just want to give this horse a chance to improve. He keeps on moving forward, so he belongs in this group.”

A $180,000 purchase from the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where he was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, Masqueparade is out of the Any Given Saturday mare Cry War Eagle. She has a 2020 colt by Collected and a 2021 filly by Cairo Prince.

Jockey Miguel Mena, who has piloted Masqueparade in all six of his lifetime starts, will retain the mount for the Jim Dandy.

Stall, Jr. added that Bal Mar Equine's Dalika is possible for the Grade 2, $250,000 Glens Falls on Aug. 7 at Saratoga.

The gray or roan German-bred mare earned her first graded stakes triumph last out in the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial on July 10 at Delaware Park. She will return to the Spa after recording stakes efforts the past two seasons, finishing second in the Riskaverse in 2019 and fifth in the Caress last year.

“She's kind of hard to ride against because if you have a horse lengths ahead of you, it takes so much to catch up to her,” Stall, Jr. said. “She got overaggressive in the Caress and she'll do that. She's the type of horse that you cannot fight her. You've got to let her do her thing. That's why Miguel [Mena] fits her so well. We don't send her one inch, she just trains that way.”

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Experts Weigh In On Yearling Vet Reports At Auction In Q&A Panel

A spotless veterinarian's report has practically become a requirement for a yearling to bring serious money at auction, but what can a crafty buyer forgive if they see a mark or two on the record, and still potentially end up with a great runner?

A panel of notable buyers, breeders, and veterinarians discussed vet reports at yearling sales and how to navigate them in a Q&A discussion entitled “Deal or No Deal?” presented by the Consignors and Commercial Breeders Association and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club on July 11 at Fasig-Tipton's Newtown Paddocks pavilion in Lexington, Ky.

Included on the panel were Dr. Nathan Chaney of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, veterinarians Dr. Robert Cook and Dr. Keith Latson, trainer Kenny McPeek, and Rob Tribbett, bloodstock adviser for Fred Hertrich's Watercress Farm.

With each sporting deep experience examining sale horses with a varying degree of flaws, or experience buying and selling them, the group discussed what issues on a vet report would be considered be deal-breakers, and which ones might overshadow what could be a successful racehorse if allowed the right amount of time and treatment.

The full discussion may be seen below.

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American-Bred Figure Prominently In Japanese Group Races

The summer season in Japan customarily sees that country's heaviest turf hitters awaiting major late summer and early fall, and a pair of American-bred runners should have a say in the outcome of this weekend's two major races at group level on the turf.

Cafe Pharoah (American Pharoah), winner of this year's G1 February S. going a mile over the Tokyo dirt track (video) and one of 14 winners from 18 Japanese starters for his sire, switches to the grass for Sunday's $709,167 G3 Hakodate Kinen over the metric mile and a quarter at Hakodate Racecourse. The 4-year-old, bred by the late Paul Pompa, Jr., has an outstanding pedigree for the turf, as he is out of Mary's Follies (More Than Ready), a two-time graded winner on the grass, first for the late John Forbes in the 2009 GIII Boiling Springs S. and later for Pompa and Chad Brown in that year's GII Mrs. Revere S.

Mary's Follies has gone on to an outstanding career in the breeding shed, accounting for dual turf graded winner Night Prowler (Giant's Causeway) and 'TDN Rising Star' Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom), who saluted in the GII Lake Placid S. and GIII Lake George S. in 2019 before adding last year's GIII Kentucky Downs Ladies' Turf S. Following Pompa's unexpected passing last fall, Mary's Follies sold for $500,000 in foal to Curlin at Keeneland January, while Regal Glory fetched $925,000 as a racing/broodmare prospect from Peter Brant.

Leading rider Christophe Lemaire has the call on the $475,000 OBS March graduate from gate one in a field of 16.

The progressive Lotus Land (Point of Entry) has earned her way back into group competition with three facile victories in a row and should have her fair share of backers in Sunday's $683,287 G3 Toyota Sho Chukyo Kinen at Kokura Racecourse.

Bred in Kentucky by Dr. Naoya Yoshida and Dr. Aaron Sones, has finished outside the top three just once in her career, when down the field in the G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in 2019, but is three-for-four in 2021, including a 1 3/4-length tally when last seen in the Listed Yonago S. going a mile at Hanshin June 19 (see below, gate 13).

One of a half-dozen females in a field of 12, Lotus Land will be ridden by Kota Fujioka in the nine-furlong test.

 

WATCH: Lotus Land winning the Listed Yonago S.

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