rich glazier | Horse Racing Free Tips

Delaware Park To Celebrate Owners’ Day With Six Stakes, Tribute To Rich Glazier

The 29th Owners' Day will showcase the best in Delaware racing and pay tribute to the late Delaware Park icon Rich Glazier this Saturday. The eleven-race card with total purses of $796,000 will have a special first race post time of 12:45 p.m. The card has six stakes, four for Delaware-bred or certified Thoroughbreds and two restricted to horses that have started at Delaware Park this year.

The seventh race will be the Rich Glazier Turf Classic which will be a time of reflection on the contributions and accomplishments the long-time television handicap analyst made to racing in Delaware. Glazier passed away on June 22nd at the age of 73.

Leading trainer Jamie Ness, who is well on his way to his seventh straight and record tying title, has entered a total of nine on the card. The 47-year-old native of Heron, South Dakota, has entered five in stakes. He has Troy Johnson and Jagger's Cashing Big Checks and Runnymoore Racing's What's Cookin in the Small Wonder Stakes, Gap View Stables and Jagger's Indian Lake in the New Castle, Michael Cox's Madam Meena in the Tax Free Shopping Distaff and Jagger's Shane's Jewel in the mile and seventy-yard DTHA Governors Day Handicap.

“We always look forward to Owner's Day,” said trainer Jamie Ness, who has 33-win lead in the race for leading trainer with a record of 47 wins, 30 seconds, and 20 thirds from 168 starts, through racing Monday, September 20. “It has always been a fun and special day and as our operation has grown and we have invested into the Delaware Certified program so too has the significance and importance of the day for us. It is just a great way to celebrate and be thankful for everything good about Delaware racing.”

The five and a half furlong $100,000 Small Wonder Stakes for Delaware bred or certified 2-year-old fillies has attracted a field of seven.

“We got two in the Small Wonder,” Ness said, who has been the leading trainer at Delaware Park every year since 2012 with the exception of 2014 when he was third in the standings. “We entered Cashing Big Checks and What's Cookin. Cashing Big Checks won the prep for this race and she seems like a really talented filly that we really like. What's Cookin is an up and comer who won really nicely in her last for Runnymoore Racing who is getting into the breeding business and will be getting most of those horses Delaware certified. Cashing Big Checks has been training really well after her gutsy performance and What's Cookin could be peaking just at that right time, so I feel really good about my two in the Small Wonder.”

The six-furlong $100,000 New Castle for Delaware bred or certified horses 3-year-olds and upward has attracted a field of ten.

“Indian Lake will run in the New Castle,” Ness said. “Obviously, he is a 3-year-old going against older horses and that is a concern, but he is Delaware Certified, so there is not a better spot to take a chance. He is a stakes winner at a mile and a half and now we are cutting back to six furlongs, which is another question all good handicappers are going to ask. But he is one of those kind of horses where he runs well going long, he runs well going short, he runs well on the dirt and he runs well on the turf. We are up against it a little bit in this spot going against older seasoned veterans, but you never know and this is as good a spot to take a shot as any.”

The six-furlong $100,000 Tax Free Shopping Distaff for Delaware bred or certified fillies and mares has attracted a field of nine.

“We entered the defending champ, Madam Meena in the Tax Free Shopping Distaff,” Ness said. “She is ready to go and ready to defend her title. She had an injury this year and we gave her some time off. We brought her back slow and we had been pointing for this race for six months. She had a good workout on Sunday, so all systems are on go. In her last race, she got into a lot of trouble and almost went down. It could have been worse and we are just thankful she came out of it okay. A horse bolted into the turn going four furlongs and took us out. It was just one of those bad luck race days, but we will overcome it. The important thing is mentally I wanted to give her a race. We got that accomplished and she came out of it fine, so we live to fight another day.”

The mile and seventy yards $75,000 DTHA Governor's Day Handicap restricted to 3-year-olds and upward who have started in a non-stake race at Delaware Park in 2021 has attracted a field of seven.

“I got Shane's Jewel in the (DTHA) Governor's Day,” Ness said. “He is going really good. He ran second in the prep for this race and he will be facing a tough group. Speed is his thing and we are going to use it, so it is going to be just like the rest of his races where it will be catch me if you can.”

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The Week in Review: A Throwback, Letruska is Horse-of-the-Year Material

Apparently, trainer Fausto Gutierrez, whose main base is in Mexico, didn't get the memo. Top U.S. horses just don't run back in three weeks or start four times over the span of 85 days. They don't go from track to track and take on all challengers. Owned by St. George Stable, Letruska (Super Saver) is doing what just isn't done anymore.

Coming back in three weeks after winning the GI Ogden Phipps S., Letruska romped Saturday at Churchill Downs in the GII Fleur de Lis S., winning by 5 3/4 lengths. It was her fifth race this year and her fourth win, which may not seem like a lot, but is commendable in an era where the less-is-more theory of training a horse has been taken to ridiculous extremes. Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper), the top contender at present for Horse of the Year, has raced just twice and not since winning the G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 27. Domestic Spending (Kingman {GB}), the best turf horse in the country, has also raced just twice. And not a single horse ran in all three Triple Crown races this year.

Not only has the 5-year-old mare stood up to the “punishment,” she has thrived. Entering the Apr. 17 GI Apple Blossom H., she had never run a triple-digit Beyer number, but did so when upsetting champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) by a nose to earn a figure of 102. She came back June 5 and got a career best 103 in her win in the Phipps. In the Fleur De Lis, she ventured into the triple digits once again, getting a 102.

Afterwards, Gutierrez would not commit when asked where Letruska would run next, but as long as he keeps the kid gloves off, the Aug. 28 GI Personal Ensign S. at Saratoga seems like a logical spot.

Wherever she starts next, she will be after her 16th career win from 21 starts and her sixth graded stakes win. All this from a horse who started her career in Mexico.

The combination of Letruska and St. George dominate Mexican racing. St. George is owned by German Larrea, who, according to Forbes, is worth $16.3 billion and is the second richest man in Mexico. She broke her maiden in a $3,400 race in Mexico City then won three straight allowance races worth a combined $13,700. After shipping to Gulfstream to win a race in the Caribbean Classic Series, she finished 13th in the 2019 Tropical Park Oaks in her first in the U.S. in open company. There was nothing to suggest what was to come.

With the year she is having and after beating Monomoy Girl at Oaklawn, she's the leading contender for the older filly and mare dirt championship. Gutierrez isn't ruling out a Horse-of-the-Year title, and why not?

“We know she's a really nice dirt horse and is supposed to win at different racetracks and different conditions for a possible Horse of the Year campaign,” he said. Gutierrez went on to tell reporters that a start in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic is a possibility.

Letruska may not be the very best horse in the sport and there may be some worthy Horse-of-the-Year candidates out of the dirt male or turf male divisions. But Horse of the Year is supposed to go to the horse who did the most from January through December and not the horse who ran four times and won some big races. If voters follow that criteria, Letruska should have a good shot at the sport's most coveted year-end honor.

Meadowlands Issues Its Own Ban For Driver Who Violated Whip Rules

As reported last week in the TDN by T.D. Thorton, harness driver Joe Bongiorno was fined $5,000 and suspended 20 days by the Meadowlands judges for over use of his whip. The judges ruled that Bongiorno's actions caused a spill that led to one horse being injured and euthanized. Unlike jockeys in New Jersey, harness drivers are allowed to use their whip to encourage horses, but there are severe restrictions placed on its use.

Bongiorno received a stay, but will nonetheless be sidelined. Starting last Friday, he began a 20-day ban put that was put in place by track owner Jeff Gural, who is never afraid to take matters into his owns hands. He was also banned at the two other tracks Gural owns, Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs.

Gural took action because he was concerned about an on-going pattern when it came to Bongiorno and the whip. The Meadowlands issued a statement, which read: “The Meadowlands, Tioga and Vernon Downs are excluding Joe Bongiorno from driving in races at any of those three tracks beginning Friday (June 25). This action is being taken due to track management's observation of Mr. Bongiorno's driving over a lengthy period of time. Most recently, in the seventh race on Saturday (May 29), Mr. Bongiorno was driving the horse Pat Stanley N when that horse fell while in contention in the very late stages of the race, resulting in a three horse accident where one of the horses suffered a catastrophic injury. Fortunately, the other two horses and all three drivers were able to walk away with minor injuries.”

Bongiorno can resume driving July 16 at the Meadowlands.

Rich Glazier, RIP

If you never paid attention to the simulcasts from Delaware Park and caught Rich Glazier's act, the loss was yours. Glazier, who worked for 30 years at Delaware Park as their TV host and paddock analyst, passed away Tuesday at the age of 73.

Glazier was much older than most racing talking heads and he was not nearly as pretty. But what this rumpled septuagenarian might have lacked in style he more than made up in substance. He knew his stuff, especially when it came to turf racing, but never took himself too seriously. He had his jokes and his shtick, all of which worked. He always reminded you of your favorite uncle who first took you to the track when you were a kid.

Mr. Delaware Park, Glazier was so devoted to his hometown track that he missed only one running of the Delaware H. (with the exception of the 1982 through 1985 runnings when it was held in Saratoga.) And he had a pretty good excuse–he was in Vietnam at the time. But that didn't keep Glazier from getting down a bet. For the 1968 Delaware H., he called his mother and told her to get to the local bookie and get a bet down for him on Politely. Politely won.

Chris Sobocinski, the track's morning-line maker and public relations director, worked alongside Glazier for years.

“He's almost synonymous with Delaware Park,” Sobocinski said. “I grew up with him being the replay show host for many, many years. In many ways, a part of Delaware Park died when Rich Glazier passed away.”

He loved horse racing like few others. One of the very best people I have ever come across in the sport, Glazier will be missed.

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Longtime Paddock/Television Host Rich Glazier Passes At Age 73

Rich Glazier, the former paddock and television replay show host at Delaware Park, passed away Tuesday at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He was 73.

The Delaware native started his career at the Stanton-oval as the host of the local replay show on cable in 1987. He also developed and hosted the “Delaware Racing Scene Show” highlighting the best of Delaware Park racing and the sport on the national level. In his more than three decades at Delaware Park, Glazier held numerous positions including paddock handicapper and analyst where he became popular with his insightful and fun interviews with almost every popular personality in Mid-Atlantic racing.

As a lifelong fan of Delaware Park, he took tremendous pride in only missing one Delaware Handicap which was in 1968 while he was serving one of his two tours during his 18 months of service as a veteran in the intelligence division of the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

“He was more than I could have ever hoped for when we brought him on board in 1987,” said Executive Director of Racing, John Mooney. “When he first approached me with the idea of working at Delaware Park and hosting a cable show highlighting racing, I was not sure. He was married with two young children and he wanted to give up his job as an accountant to work at a track that at the time was struggling. But he made it work and he did an incredible and professional job. He gained the respect of everyone and made friends throughout the industry. He was as great a representative for Delaware Park as there could be and he will be greatly missed.”

Glazier is survived by his wife of 49 years, Amy; sons David and Michael; daughters-in-law Katie and Julie; grandchildren Sydney, Zachary, Jacob, Samuel, and Nora; brother Brad; sister-in-law Michelle; and niece Jenna.

In lieu of flowers, family suggests donations to St. Jude's Hospital for Children, the Siegel JCC Senior Center, or charity of choice.

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