Tag: Horse Racing

Fonner Files: Fonner Park Rides The Wave Of Success As Meet Closes

Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak shares slices of life from the Grand Island, Neb., racetrack throughout the 2021 meet in the Fonner Files.

Riding the wave of an unprecedented 2020 extended season of Thoroughbred horse racing, Fonner Park concluded the 2021 season with over $4.65 million in on-track mutuel handle.

Comparing numbers to 2019, rather than the 2020 season (when Fonner Park was closed to the public after the first four weeks due to the pandemic), Fonner was up 19 percent in parimutuel handle of Fonner Park guests betting on Fonner Park races.

The handle for out-of-state wagers on Fonner Park in 2021 was roughly $15.5 million, an increase of 447 percent compared to $2.8 million in 2019. The overall national horse racing industry handle was up approximately 12 percent for March and April, but Fonner Park was up 19 percent on-track.

“This year I spent extra on marketing to the horseplayers across the nation who got exposed to Fonner Park last year during the pandemic. I wanted to remind them that we were back and still a good bet,” said Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak. “In 2021 average field size bumped to 7.9 from 7.3 in 2020 and large fields are always a draw to the bettor regardless of quality.”

Sleepy Eyes Todd went on to win three stakes races after his 2020 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes win. Remarkably, he returned to defend his title off three multi-million-dollar, G1 races in three previous months. As a 2-5 favorite, he was beaten by 9-2 second-choice Mo Mosa, ridden by Armando Martinez and trained by Michael Maker.

Mo Mosa was named 2021 Horse of the Meet and First Alternate was the unanimous choice for champion older filly or mare after winning three stakes races in as many starts for trainer Stetson Mitchell.

“She's a blessing to me and my family and the special kind of horse horsemen pray for,” said Mitchell said.

By winning the final race of the year, Jake Olesiak won his sixth title as champion jockey, with a total of 46 wins, one more win than Armando Martinez.

David C. Anderson won his 15th champion trainer award at Fonner Park, with 36 wins from 169 starts. D and L Farms (Darcy and Lee Burghardt) won 15 races from 39 starts and earned leading owner honors.

The 2021 Feat of the Meet award was voted as Fonner Park's presence on the national stage with 2021 export handle five-times greater than 2019.

“I am convinced that the success and future of Fonner Park is directly attributed to our passionate community of staff, horsemen and race fans. Without our strong community support we could not survive,” Kotulak remarked.

Fonner Park

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Cordmaker Returns To Pimlico Special For Third Straight Year

Hillwood Stable's multiple stakes winner Cordmaker, third in each of the past two years, is headed for a third straight trip to the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) May 14 at Pimlico Race Course.

Trainer Rodney Jenkins said Monday that plans call for the gelded 6-year-old son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin to make his 29th career start in the 1 3/16-mile Special on the undercard of the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2).

“We're going to give it a shot. He's run great the past two years,” Jenkins said. “We're going to give it a chance to see if we can be something besides third this time.”

Bred in Maryland by the late Bob Manfuso and trainer Katy Voss, Cordmaker was beaten two necks when third behind Tenfold and You're To Blame in the 2019 Special. Harpers First Ride was a two-length winner in 2020 when the race was delayed from mid-May to early October amid the coronavirus pandemic, with Cordmaker a half-length behind runner-up Owendale.

Last year's Special came during a career-long winless drought for Cordmaker of 10 races spanning more than 17 months. Second or third in six of those starts, all of them in stakes, he returned to the winner's circle with a front-running one-length triumph in the 1 1/8-mile Harrison E. Johnson Memorial March 13 at Laurel Park.

“It had to be good for him because it got him more confidence. He ran a really nice race,” Jenkins said. “We hope between that and the way he's been training that he's up to this.”

Cordmaker has breezed twice since the Johnson, both times bullet five-furlong moves at Pimlico. He went in 1:00.20 April 18, the fastest of 33 horses, and returned to go in 59.40 seconds April 27, the best of 15 horses.

“He's doing really well. The horse is probably has never done better in his life than he's doing now,” Jenkins said. “He seems to be interested in everything. We took him to Pimlico to work him and he worked good there, so I hope he runs as good as he's training.”

Purchased for $150,000 as yearling in 2016, Cordmaker has nine wins, four seconds and six thirds with purse earnings of $588,640. He won the Jennings for Maryland-bred/sired horses as a 3-year-old in 2018 and the Johnson and Polynesian at Laurel and DTHA Governors Day Handicap in 2019 at Delaware Park.

The Pimlico Special for 3-year-olds and up was created in 1937 by Alfred Vanderbilt, the master of Sagamore Farm, as the first major stakes in the United States set up as an invitational, and was won by Triple Crown champion War Admiral. The following year, War Admiral was upset by Seabiscuit in what Sports Illustrated has called the “Race of the Century.”

Revived in 1988 by the late Maryland Jockey Club president Frank J. De Francis, the Special's illustrious roster of winners also includes Triple Crown winners Whirlaway, Citation and Assault and modern-day Horses of the Year Criminal Type, Cigar, Skip Away, Mineshaft and Invasor.

A total of 16 stakes, 10 graded, worth $3.25 million in purses will be contested over Preakness weekend, May 14-15, at Pimlico, highlighted by the 146th running of the $1 million Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

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King Fury’s Fever Returns; Lexington Winner No Longer Under Consideration For Preakness

Trainer Kenny McPeek took Lexington (G3) winner King Fury out of consideration for the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico, reporting Tuesday that the temperature that had knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby (G1) has flared back up.

“There's no way to make the Preakness,” he said. “It's a no-brainer.”

McPeek said that King Fury had a “significant cough” Tuesday morning.

King Fury, who earned his way into the Kentucky Derby with an impressive victory in the Lexington at Keeneland, was withdrawn from the Run for the Roses the day before the race.

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Cox Confirms Essential Quality Will Skip Preakness, Point To Belmont Stakes

Reigning champion trainer Brad Cox told Steve Byk this morning that Kentucky Derby fourth-place finisher Essential Quality will not return in the Preakness Stakes, but would instead come back in five weeks for the Belmont.

The 3-year-old son of Tapit was undefeated prior to his run on the first Saturday in May, winning the G1 Breeders' Futurity, G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, G3 Southwest Stakes, and G2 Blue Grass. He endured a challenging trip at the start of the Kentucky Derby, rushed up into contention prior to the clubhouse turn, and ran on well to finish fourth, beaten just a length by the winner, Medina Spirit.

Final decisions have yet to be made for Cox's other two Preakness potentials, Derby runner-up Mandaloun and G1 Arkansas Derby runner-up Caddo River.

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