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Winter Weather Cancellations Have February Wagering Numbers Down Over Six Percent

Equibase, LLC released its second monthly report of 2021 on Economic Indicators in Thoroughbred Racing on Thursday, March 4. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Equibase has been providing monthly economic indicators advisories. The Advisory is typically disseminated on a quarterly basis to provide key metrics used to measure racing's performance throughout the year.

A group of winter storm caused racing cancellations across much of the United States in February, most notably for two weeks at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark, but extending to tracks from Texas up through the Northeast.

Therefore, the number of race days held in February of 2021 dropped by 26 percent compared to the same month in 2020, while the total number of races held dropped 22 percent.

Overall wagering decreased by 6.79 percent in February of 2021, though average daily wagering remained strong with a 25.98 percent increase over the same period. Year-to-date, overall wagering remained slightly higher than during the first two months of 2020, up by 1.30 percent.

Purses showed a similar change, with the total amount of purses paid out down 19.70 percent, but the average dollar amount of purses paid out per race day up 8.53 percent.

February 2021 vs. February 2020
Indicator	February 2021	February 2020	% Change
Wagering on U.S. Races*	$840,059,258	$901,272,610	-6.79%
U.S. Purses	$62,100,791	$77,336,485	-19.70%
U.S. Race Days	219	296	-26.01%
U.S. Races	1,928	2,477	-22.16%
U.S. Starts	14,880	19,362	-23.15%
Average Field Size	7.72	7.82	-1.26%
Average Wagering Per Race Day	$3,835,887	$3,044,840	+25.98%
Average Purses Per Race Day	$283,565	$261,272	+8.53%

YTD 2021 vs. YTD 2020
Indicator	YTD 2021	YTD 2020	% Change
Wagering on U.S. Races*	$1,799,973,370	$1,776,919,630	+1.30%
U.S. Purses	$133,200,888	$149,453,215	-10.87%
U.S. Race Days	474	579	-18.13%
U.S. Races	4,139	4,829	-14.29%
U.S. Starts	32,759	38,054	-13.91%
Average Field Size	7.91	7.88	+0.44%
Average Wagering Per Race Day	$3,797,412	$3,068,946	+23.74%
Average Purses Per Race Day	$281,015	$258,123	+8.87%

* Includes worldwide commingled wagering on U.S. races.

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Jockey Rocco Bowen Getting ‘In The Zone’ At Oaklawn Park

Mile races at Oaklawn occasionally trick riding newcomers since those races end at the sixteenth pole.

Add Barbados native Rocco Bowen to the list, but his ending was a treat. Taking no chances in last Saturday's sixth race, Bowen guided Background ($70) to a noteworthy 1 ¾-length victory for trainer Mike Puhich in the $88,000 second-level allowance event for older horses.

“I rode four or five jumps after the wire,” Bowen said during training hours last Sunday. “(Ricardo) Santana was like: 'Stop! Stop! Stop! Rocco, stop, you're going to get fined.' But I was like so in the zone. I wanted to make sure the job was done – sealed, packaged and delivered.”

The victory, over a sloppy track with light rain falling, made Bowen, 31, the first Barbadian jockey to win a race at Oaklawn. Riding at Oaklawn for the first time this year, Bowen had been winless in 33 mounts at the meet, which was interrupted last month because of severe winter weather.

“I wouldn't say discouraged, I felt more like I was letting my agent down,” Bowen said, referring to his mentor, retired jockey Joe Steiner. “He took up a huge task to take my book when I came to Oaklawn, so I felt personally it was on me that I was letting him down and I wasn't putting my best foot forward. I wasn't putting my best foot forward to feed him and his family. It's the first time away from his 5-year-old boy. It's hard. I've been in that position, being away from my kids the first time. It's never easy. I had that in the back of my mind: 'What am I doing?' I'm taking away from his family. I'm not doing any good.”

A wicked left hook from Mother Nature added to Bowen's frustration. Arctic temperatures and heavy snow led Oaklawn to cancel eight live racing dates and 11 days of training in February. Not only did Bowen miss numerous chances to record his first victory, he gets on many horses each morning.

Bowen lives on Lake Hamilton and said much of his snow(cation) was spent driving to a nearby Kroger or gas station and venturing to the track to shedrow horses for trainer Norman McKnight to stay fit.

“I only missed like three days and then Mr. McKnight put me to work,” Bowen said. “It was surely one of the biggest snowstorms I've witnessed. I sent my mom videos, constantly, my family. I was like, 'Family, I thought you loved me. Where's the sunshine?' ”

Although Bowen cut his teeth in Canada, he became a riding star in the Pacific Northwest. He became the first Bajan jockey to win a riding title in the United States at the 2015-2016 Portland Meadows meeting and was champion jockey three consecutive years (2016, 2017 and 2018) at Emerald Downs in suburban Seattle before a debilitating arm injury in September 2018 cost him approximately 1 ½ years in the saddle. Bowen resumed riding June 4 at Belterra Park and a week later became the first Bajan jockey to win a race Churchill Downs (White Wolf for trainer Paul Holthus of Hot Springs). The purse was $24,000. Bowen said it was the trainer's wife, Oaklawn paddock analyst/handicapper Nancy Holthus, who reminded him last Saturday's pot was almost four times larger.

“Honestly, I didn't know the purse until I got back to the room, until one of my biggest fans, Nancy, said something to me,” Bowen said. “She said on top of me winning, it was a big purse. I said, 'Nancy, I was just hoping to win one.' It didn't matter the purse size because all purses here are big. Some are bigger than others. I was just hoping to notch one. It feels great.”

Bowen entered Thursday with 1,008 career North American victories, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. He was named on two horses Thursday at Oaklawn, including Frankies Moonshine for Paul Holthus in the fifth race.

The most famous rider produced by Barbados, a small Caribbean island northeast of Venezuela, is Patrick Husbands, an eight-time Sovereign Award winner as the outstanding jockey in Canada. Husbands is 0 for 11 in his career at Churchill Downs and never ridden at Oaklawn.

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McPeek Stacked With Fillies For 2021

The Ken McPeek shedrow is flush with fillies, two of which–Tabor Hall (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Trapeze S. winner Oliviaofthedesert (Bernardini)–are set to represent the stable in this weekend's GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn Park.

“They're both two-turn fillies,” McPeek told the Oaklawn notes team. “I think it's ideal timing for both of them to see where they fit in the scheme of the Oaks and the 3-year-old filly division. Olivia won a nice little race out at Remington and Tabor Hall's shown quality. They're both doing well and the timing was good.”

The best may be yet to come, however, as McPeek is also readying last year's GIII Remington Park Oaks and GII Falls City S. victress Envoutante (Uncle Mo) for an appearance in the GII Azeri S. in Hot Springs Mar. 13. That race is the final local prep for the GI Apple Blossom H. Apr. 17, an event that could also attract the McPeek barn's heaviest hitter, GI Preakness S. and GI Alabama S. heroine Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil), who is likely to make her 4-year-old debut in the GI Beholder Mile S. at Santa Anita Mar. 13.

“Her last race was a beast race,” McPeek said Wednesday afternoon, referring to Envoutante's six-length romp in the Falls City. “She and Swiss have been getting ready down here [in Florida] and I've been trying to keep them separated. I made a decision and it looks like Swiss is going to California. It's a high-level problem. I'm pretty heavy on fillies this year, for some odd, unusual reason.”

Swiss Skydiver ended her sophomore season on a down note, finishing well behind Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 7. When asked if she might be a candidate for the Apple Blossom, McPeek said: “Yeah, it's possible. I think the timing is pretty good for both of them to run back there.”

Though McPeek has never won the Apple Blossom, the outstanding Take Charge Lady (Dehere) was just run down in the waning strides of the 2003 renewal by reigning Horse of the Year Azeri (Jade Hunter).

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Gotham: O’Neill-Trained Wipe The Slate ‘Much More Calm And Relaxed’

West Coast-based Freedom Fighter and Wipe the Slate, top contenders for Saturday's Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct Racetrack, arrived in New York from their southern California base at Santa Anita Park on Wednesday and visited the Belmont Park dirt training track Thursday morning.

A loaded Saturday card at Aqueduct features the Gotham, a one-turn mile that provides 50-20-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers; the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap, a six-furlong sprint for older horses; the $250,000 Busher Invitational for 3-year-old fillies offering 50-20-10-5 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points; and the $125,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational, a one-turn mile for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Freedom Fighter, stabled with trainer John Terranova, went out to the training track at 9:30 a.m. with exercise rider Simon Harris aboard while under the watchful eye of Terranova's wife and assistant, Tonja.

Terranova said fellow Baffert trainee Speed Pass, entered in the Tom Fool on the Gotham undercard, was out for exercise at 7:30 a.m.

“They just cruised around the track,” Tonja Terranova said. “They both looked great. Simon was happy with how they went and both of them ate up real well last night.”

A son of Violence, Freedom Fighter will see some added distance in the one-turn mile Gotham off a close second to stablemate Concert Tour in the Grade 2 San Vicente at seven furlongs at Santa Anita. The runner-up effort, which garnered a 94 Beyer Speed Figure, was his first start off a six-month layoff after a successful debut going gate-to-wire on August 1 at Del Mar.

Freedom Fighter is owned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Golconda Stables, Siena Farm and Robert Masterson and was bought for $120,000 from the 2019 Keeneland September Sale.

Manny Franco will pilot Freedom Fighter from post 7 in a field of eight.

Speed Pass, owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, arrives at the Tom Fool – a six-furlong sprint for older horses – off a close third as the lukewarm favorite in an allowance optional claiming race on January 31 at Santa Anita, which was his first start in nearly a full calendar year.

A two-time winner at three-quarters of a mile, the son of Bodemeister was third in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes last January at Santa Anita and seeks his first trip to the winner's circle since defeating winners at Los Alamitos by seven lengths over a good and sealed track.

Trainer Doug O'Neill, who was nominated to the Hall of Fame this year, shipped Wipe the Slate for the Gotham. The chestnut son of second-crop sire Nyquist went to the training track at 10:00 a.m. for O'Neill's assistant Daniel Robles.

“Perfect, really good,” Robles said of the morning exercise. “I think we have a pretty good chance.”

Wipe the Slate was last out a distant sixth to Medina Spirit in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis on February 6 at Santa Anita going 1 1/16 miles and cuts back to one turn for the Gotham.

“That was a bad day for him, but he's come along well,” Robles said. “Going back to one turn should be good for him. That day, he was real nervous, but this time he seems much more calm and relaxed.”

Second to highly regarded Life Is Good on debut, Wipe the Slate broke his maiden in his following effort on December 26 at Santa Anita. He will take blinkers off for Saturday's race and will be ridden from post 4 by Aqueduct leading rider Kendrick Carmouche.

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