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TVG Coverage Features Holiday Stakes, Opening Weekends At Fair Grounds, Tampa

TVG, America's horse racing network and leading ADW platform, will bring live horse racing into homes across the country on Thanksgiving Day with live racing from Del Mar in California and opening day from Fair Grounds in Louisiana. The award-winning network will also feature stakes races from Aqueduct, opening weekend from Tampa Bay Downs and premier international racing including the Japan Cup (Group 1) as part of the weekend coverage.

On Thursday, Del Mar will kick off a star-studded four days of racing featuring seven graded stakes races including the $300,000 Hollywood Derby (G1) on Saturday and the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes (G1) on Sunday. Todd Schrupp, Christina Blacker, Britney Eurton, Joaquin Jaime and Mike Joyce will be live on-site at Del Mar with exclusive interviews, expert analysis and selections while Simon Bray will be contributing to the broadcast from home.

The featured race on Thursday at Del Mar is the $100,000 Red Carpet Stakes (G3) which has attracted a competitive field of ten fillies and mares including representatives from top East Coast barns for trainers Chad Brown and Graham Motion. Orglandes, has been tabbed as the morning line favorite at odds of 5-2 for Chad Brown and the four-year-old filly will be making her stakes debut after an allowance win at Belmont Park in October. Irad Ortiz, Jr. will be in the irons.

The prestigious $300,000 Hollywood Derby (G1), the ninth and final race on Saturday, has drawn a field of thirteen of the top turf three-year-olds from coast to coast. The one-two finishers in the Hill Prince Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park in October, Get Smokin and Decorated Invader, have both shipped to California for a rematch. Get Smokin, trained by Tom Bush, will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith and the Christophe Clement-trained Decorated Invader retains regular rider Joel Rosario.

The live racing season will begin at Fair Grounds on Thursday with a loaded ten-race card featuring the $125,000 Thanksgiving Classic Stakes. The six-furlong contest has drawn a field of eight including Manny Wah, the 3-1 morning line favorite for trainer Wayne Catalano. The four-year-old son of Will Take Charge was last seen finishing fifth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) and will be ridden by James Graham. The 76-day meet will run through March 28th and will broadcast in its entirety by TVG.

Racing from Aqueduct will resume on Friday with ten stakes races scheduled over the course of three days. Friday's featured race, the $100,000 Comely Stakes (G3) has a field of ten sophomore fillies set to compete in the 1 1/8 mile contest including Thankful, a daughter of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the bay filly has won her last two starts and will be making her stakes debut under jockey Kendrick Carmouche.

On Saturday, fans of international racing can tune in to watch champion Almond Eye make the final start of her career in the Japan Cup (G1) where she will square off against undefeated 2019 Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail and the undefeated Triple Tiara champion Daring Tact. International expert Candice Hare will host the broadcast and post time for the Japan Cup (G1) is at 1:40 a.m. ET/10:40 p.m. PT on Saturday night.

In addition to racing from Del Mar, Fair Grounds and Aqueduct TVG will also be featuring Laurel, Gulfstream Park West and more. Fans can tune in on TVG, TVG2 and the Watch TVG app which is available on Amazon Fire, Roku and connected Apple TV devices.

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Tampa Bay Downs Releases COVID-19 Plan; Fans To Return When Racing Resumes Nov. 25

The most frequent question Tampa Bay Downs officials have received the past several weeks is: “Are you guys going to allow fans to come watch the races?”

In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, customer health and safety are the track's foremost concerns. Tampa Bay Downs, which has allowed on-track simulcast wagering since July 2 and Silks Poker Room play since mid-June, has formulated plans to permit spectators for its 2020-2021 Thoroughbred meeting, beginning with the Opening Day racing card on Nov. 25.

The 90-day meeting proper runs through May 2, followed by the annual Summer Festival of Racing on June 30 and July 1. Tampa Bay Downs will race most Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, adding Sundays starting Dec. 20 and also racing Thursday, Dec. 24.

For the foreseeable future, fans will be required to wear masks both inside and outside the facility, unless they are eating or drinking. Temperatures will be taken of each person entering the building.

Various measures have been established to ensure social distancing, including:

· The creation of more outdoor, private spaces for small groups

· A limited number of benches on the apron of the Grandstand, with increased spacing

· Computer-generated, socially distanced Grandstand seating

· A reduction in box seating, from eight to six seats per box

Those changes, and many others, are designed to provide patrons with a high level of comfort and security when they arrive for an afternoon of Thoroughbred racing during the track's 95th anniversary season.

Tampa Bay Downs has developed a website for fans to reserve seating that provides social distancing. The cost is $5 per seat and must be paid in advance. To purchase seats through the website, go to www.tbdseats.com

The track raced without spectators last season from March 17 through the annual two-day Summer Festival of Racing, generating income and purses for horsemen and horsewomen through account wagering.

Peter Berube, the track's Vice President-General Manager, expressed optimism that a shared sense of responsibility and respect among track employees, horsemen, jockeys and fans will enable spectators to attend all season.

“We understand that many of our patrons would like to see a return to pre-Coronavirus status, while many others are concerned about venturing outside their homes while the pandemic continues to pose a threat,” Berube said.

“We believe it is important to listen to and respect all viewpoints, but our biggest duty is doing everything possible to keep our customers and employees healthy. Without fans at the track, racing loses some of its excitement and charm, and our on-track business suffers.”

Tampa Bay Downs has also implemented rules to protect jockeys. Riders, jockey room staff, starting gate personnel, etc., will undergo rapid COVID testing prior to their arrival, with twice-weekly testing from there on. No newcomers will be allowed without a negative test, and jockeys will be restricted to their designated areas on race days and required to leave the room following their last ride of the day.

Other elements of the track's COVID-19 protocol include increasing the number of hand-sanitizing stations throughout the facility; ongoing cleaning and sterilizing of high-touch surfaces and areas; socially distanced markers on the floors; providing disinfecting wipes next to wagering machines, replay TVs and high-touch machines; and installing Plexiglas partitions between employees and customers at the Customer Service desk, program windows, concession stands and Gift Shop.

Each aspect of the track's COVID-19 protocol is designed to train the spotlight where it belongs: on the horses, jockeys and trainers who have helped make Tampa Bay Downs one of the sport's most popular wagering signals during the winter and early spring.

The stakes schedule, which begins with the Dec. 5 Cotillion Festival Day card, remains virtually the same as last season. The 41st annual Grade II, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, a showcase for Triple Crown prospects, will be held March 6 as part of an outstanding Festival Day of racing program, featuring four graded races and total stakes purse money of $1-million.

Other major race days include Festival Preview Day on Feb. 6, highlighted by the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes for 3-year-olds; Florida Cup Day on March 28, featuring six $110,000 stakes races for registered Florida-breds; and Kentucky Derby Day on May 1.

Nine of last season's top 10 jockeys have returned for the 2020-2021 meeting. Jockeys Daniel Centeno and Antonio Gallardo, who have a combined 11 Oldsmar riding championships, are approaching major career milestones at the outset of the meeting. Centeno, who has won a record six Tampa Bay Downs titles, has ridden 2,987 North American winners (to go with 847 in his native Venezuela).

Gallardo, a five-time track champion and last year's leading jockey with 122 winners, has 1,955 victories in North America.

Samy Camacho, who won the 2020 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on King Guillermo, is also expected to contend for the top spot in this year's standings. Other top returning jockeys include Pablo Morales, who rode career winner No. 2,000 here last season; four-time Oldsmar track champion Ronnie Allen, Jr.; two-time champion Jesus Castanon; and veterans Jose Ferrer, Willie Martinez and Scott Spieth.

The Tampa Bay Downs trainers roster also features nine of the top 10 finishers in last season's standings, headed by defending champion Gerald Bennett, who has won the last five Oldsmar training titles and six overall. Bennett, who saddled 61 winners last season, has 3,920 winners in his career, 14th on the all-time list.

Last season's runner-up with 33 winners, Kathleen O'Connell, is a two-time Tampa Bay Downs training champion. Her career total of 2,190 victories is behind only Kim Hammond (2,321) among North American women trainers.

Michael Stidham, last season's third-place trainer with 31 victories, returns, along with Mike Dini and Jose H. Delgado, who tied for fourth. Other conditioners who may lack the numbers to compete for a title, but bear watching, include Arnaud Delacour, H. Graham Motion, Tim Hamm, Eoin Harty and Anthony Granitz.

Joining the backside roster this season are Mike Maker, whose 2,600-plus career training victories include the recent Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf presented by Coolmore America with Fire At Will, plus 12 other graded-stakes victories in 2020; Jon Arnett, who recently sent out career winner No. 2,000 at Prairie Meadows in Iowa; and David Van Winkle, a veteran of more than 30 seasons with almost 1,100 victories.

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Training Begins At Colonial Downs; 18-Day Meet To Start July 27

With the return of live racing to Colonial Downs just two weeks away, trainers from Tampa Bay Downs were amongst the initial conditioners to arrive on the backstretch which recently opened. As a light rain shower passed through the area, the first horses made their way onto the mile and a quarter main track signaling the start of training for the 18-day meet that starts Monday, July 27.

The first horse onto the track was Mo Margarita from the barn of James Tsirigotis, Jr., who has eight horses here from Tampa.

“The Tampa horsemen definitely played a big role in the success of our 'racing revival' last year and I'm certainly glad to see so many of them return,” said Director of Racing and Racing Secretary Allison DeLuca, who serves in the same role at the Oldsmar, Florida, oval.

The Sunshine State outfits are topped by last year's co-leading trainer Mike Stidham, who will again have a string at Colonial this summer. The 62-year-old native of Neptune, New Jersey, won 10 races during the 2019 meet including stakes scores with Embolden in the Jamestown Stakes and with Doc's Boy in the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Kitten's Joy. He surpassed the 2,000-win mark in November.

“We enjoyed racing here last year,” Stidham said. “We had a lot of grass horses that we were able to run that we couldn't get in at other tracks. We won a lot of races. Our horses liked the grass course and the dirt surface was good as well.

“We're anxious and looking forward to another good meet,” he continued. “We will have a strong presence at Colonial and plan to run as many as possible this year.”

In addition to Stidham and Tsirigotis, others trainers who have made the trek from the western peninsula of Florida include Mike Campbell, Francisco Machado, Abdul Williams, James Dimmett, Jonathon Feron, Joseph Minieri, Mauricio Nunez, Derek Ryan, Dennis Ward, John Fennessey, Sarah Nagle, Moises Yanez, and Whitney Vallis to name just a few.

Among the prominent new trainers to have a Colonial Downs outfit is that of Christophe Clemente. The Paris-born Clemente, who saddled Tonalist to win the 2014 Belmont Stakes (G1), though based in New York this time of year he will have a contingent of eight horses here. Earlier this year, Clemente notched his 2,000th victory.

Of course, Virginia-bred, -sired or -restricted runners will be featured prominently during the Colonial Downs season with numerous stakes opportunities sprinkled throughout the meet with as many as six such events planned for the opening three programs.

“Move in day was hectic – we have 100 horses at home; trying to get a batch down here,” said trainer Karen Godsey. “Mom and I were throwing hay the other day trying to get it all done.  We have 11 (horses) here so far, nine or 10 more to come from the farm and some from other tracks. We'll trickle them in — I'll bring another couple more every day.

“It feels great to be back especially after this year that we've all had — at one point, didn't even know we'd be here,” she said. “I hope I have as a good meet as I did last year but don't know if you can get lucky twice. What the Beep, winner of the 2019 Tyson Gilpin Stakes is back and will compete in the same Virginia-bred stakes this year (Sept. 2).”

Another Virginia-based trainer David Bourke arrived over the weekend and will have 10 horses here for the meet. “I just brought the first set out to train and the track feels great — it has a really nice cushion on it. It is all manicured and looks A1,” he said. “We fortunately brought a bit better stock with us this year. We have two really nice 2-year-olds. We have something more to look forward to than we did last year. The quality in our stable this year is better.”

The Colonial Downs season begins Monday, July 27, with racing conducted three days a week – Monday through Wednesday – with a first post of 5:30 p.m. EDT with provisions for a limited number of spectators in attendance for the 18-day schedule.

Under conditions established in Virginia's Phase 3 reopening plan, which allows for outdoor venues to cap attendance at 1,000 spectators, Colonial Downs will plan the following protocols for the nightly meeting:

·        Up to 1000 spectators will be admitted to the outdoor areas of the grandstand and the track apron.

·        All guests will receive temperature checks upon arrival at the facility and a 6-foot social distancing policy will be enforced.

·        Guests are required to wear masks indoors and encouraged outdoors.

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Tampa: Two Mandatory Payouts For Ultimate Six Next Week, Simulcast Wagering Returns July 2

The eighth annual, two-day Summer Festival of Racing on Tuesday and Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs will feature mandatory payouts both days on the track's popular 20-cent Ultimate 6 wager.

The current jackpot grew to $61,218 Wednesday. The wager requires bettors to correctly select the winners of each of the last six races. The entire Ultimate 6 pool will be distributed both days to all bettors selecting the most winners.

Tuesday's card is the final day of the 2019-2020 meeting, with Wednesday the first day of the 2020-2021 meeting, scheduled to resume in late November. Spectators are not allowed; fans may bet on the Ultimate 6 through various account-wagering sites such as NYRA Bets, DRF Bets and TVG.

Full-card simulcast wagering returns to Tampa Bay Downs on Thursday, July 2 with Thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing seven days a week.

Wagering areas will include the first floor of the Grandstand; The Silks Poker Room, which reopened June 14; and, beginning July 3, the Legends Bar on the second floor of the Grandstand, which will be open each Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Food and beverage service will be available. The Riders Up! bar on the first floor of the Grandstand will be open every day from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Patrons must have their temperatures taken at the track entrance. Individuals with a temperature of 100.4 or higher will be denied admittance. Facemasks are required and social distancing will be enforced.

Beginning July 3, programs and Daily Racing Forms will be on sale from 11:15 a.m.-5 p.m., Fridays through Sundays, on the first floor of the Grandstand. Mutuel tellers will sell programs and forms on the remaining days. Bettors can wager with mutuel tellers and through self-service terminals.

Online Florida Lottery sales will not be available. Clubhouse areas, including The Sports Gallery and the Carrels area, remain closed until further notice.

The Fourth of July weekend includes Thoroughbred racing at such major tracks as Belmont Park, Gulfstream, Monmouth, Laurel and Woodbine, as well as a number of other tracks.

Since Tampa Bay Downs closed to spectators in mid-March due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, all areas of the track have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to offer customers a safe, welcoming environment. Those efforts continue on a daily basis.

The post Tampa: Two Mandatory Payouts For Ultimate Six Next Week, Simulcast Wagering Returns July 2 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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