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Delta Downs: 96 Entered For Nine-Race Card On Nov. 24 Opening Day

Delta Downs' racing office took entries on Tuesday for the opening day program of its upcoming 2020-21 Thoroughbred season. The 84-day stand will kick off on Tuesday, Nov. 24 and run through April 16. First post time each day of the meet will be at 12:55 pm Central Time at the Vinton, La. track.

A total of 96 horses, including also eligible horses, were entered in the nine-race program to start the season. The first week of live racing will include programs on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 24 and 25. The track will be dark on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday the 26th before the week wraps up with live cards on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27 and 28.

Following opening week, Delta Downs will settle into a Monday through Thursday schedule for the remainder of the season with the only exception being Thursday, Dec. 24, when the track will be dark on Christmas Eve.

The opening day feature race is the $60,000 B Connected Stakes carded as the eighth event on the card. The race attracted a group of 12, which includes two also eligible horses. The top earner in the field is Thomas L. Holyfield's 7-year-old gelding Bistraya, who has banked $235,346 during his 38-race career. Bistraya is trained by David Gomez and will be ridden by Gerardo Mora.

Race fans will be treated to one stakes race per day for the first six days of the season. In addition to the B Connected on opening day, the $60,000 Lookout will take place on Wednesday of opening week. The $100,000 Treasure Chest takes center stage on Friday, and the $100,000 Delta Mile will headline the action on Saturday. On Monday, Nov. 30, it will be the $100,000 Jean Lafitte Stakes before the $100,000 My Trusty Cat spotlights the Tuesday, Dec. 1 card.

For more information about the upcoming season, including the entire stakes schedule, visit the track's website at www.deltadownsracing.com. Fans can also get information about the track through Facebook by visiting the page 'Delta Downs Racing'. The track's Twitter handle is @deltaracing.

Delta Downs Racetrack Casino and Hotel, a property of Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), features exciting casino action, live horse racing and fun dining experiences. Delta Downs is located in Vinton, Louisiana, on Delta Downs Drive. From Lake Charles, take Exit 7 and from Texas, take Exit 4.

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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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Hall Of Fame Trainer Mark Casse Approaching 3,000-Win Milestone

Trainer Mark Casse's next chance to notch career win No. 3,000 is scheduled to come Thursday at Gulfstream Park West in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Following the cancellation of Sunday's program at Woodbine, where he had seven horses entered, Casse's milestone win could be reached with Live Oak Plantation's Souper Watson in Thursday's Race 3 at Gulfstream Park West. The 3-year-old Ghostzapper gelding is scheduled to make his first start since April 25 in the 7 ½-furlong maiden special weight race on turf.

Casse, who was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame this year, also has entered What a Beaut in Thursday's Race 6, a 7 ½-furlong turf allowance for Florida-bred fillies and mares, at Gulfstream Park West. However, his second shot at No. 3000 – should Souper Watson come up short in Race 3 – is likely to come in Churchill Downs' Race 5, which has a scheduled post time a few minutes earlier than Race 6 at Gulfstream Park West, according to Equibase.

Gary Barber's What a Beaut, a 4-year-old daughter of Beau Choix, finished second in a Nov. 2 optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream Park West n her first start since May.

Casse has an additional entry at Churchill and two entries at Woodbine following Gulfstream Park West's Race 6 on Thursday.

A native of Indiana, Casse took out his trainer's license at the age of 17 in Massachusetts. He saddled his first career winner Joe's Coming in 1979 and his first graded stakes winner in 1984 when winning the Jamaica (G3) at Belmont Park with Raja's Shark. A 12-time Sovereign Award winner, Casse is ranked sixth in North America this year in wins (171) and purse earnings ($10.777). Just a few of Casse's many highlights include saddling winners in the 2019 Preakness (War of Will) and 2019 Belmont (Sir Winston) and training two-time champion Tepin, winner of the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot.

Casse has won training titles at Woodbine, Keeneland, Churchill and Turfway. He will become the 34th horsemen to win 3000 races.

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Waiting For New Defendants In Federal Case? You Could Be Waiting A While

Not for the first time, prosecutors hinted Tuesday that there could be additional indictments or additional co-defendants coming in the bombshell federal drug misbranding case from earlier this year — but again, they declined to commit to a timeframe about when any additional action could be coming.

The case focuses on an alleged horse doping ring that prosecutors say included trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, among others. A superseding indictment released earlier this month revised charges slightly, adding a wire/mail fraud charge against one subgroup of defendants and leaving out several defendants who had been named in the original documents unsealed in March. It remains unclear whether the defendants not named in the new indictment plan to enter guilty pleas. All defendants, either through Tuesday's telephonic conference or through their attorneys, entered pleas of not guilty to the charges in the new indictment.

Read more about the superseding indictment here.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. Adams had emphasized in previous conferences that the government's investigation is ongoing and he does not know what new information could still come to light. Defense counsel for Jason Servis and Dr. Seth Fishman expressed frustration with the open-ended nature of Adams' summary of the case, asking U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil to set deadlines for the government to produce any further superseding indictments. Vyskocil declined to do so. Adams emphasized that his office did not anticipate any new indictments or new defendants would serve to slow down the existing case.

Adams also took a moment to highlight one distinction he said the government made in its superseding indictment about the types of substances described in the charges. Adams pointed out that it will not be up to the government to show whether or not the drugs named were effective at manipulating a race outcome.

“A drug that is promoted and intended to be a performance enhancer, but is a dud, is nevertheless a misbranded/adulterated drug for the purposes of this indictment and the intent remains the same for the creation and administration of those drugs,” said Adams.

Much of the discussion Tuesday focused on the difficulty of the enormous volume of evidence defense counsel must sort through as they prepare their various pre-trial motions. Adams said his office is making every effort to turn over as much information as possible well ahead of the timeframes normally required of prosecutors in this type of case, specifically so there will be as few large caches of data to go through as possible later on. Adams said his office is still in possession of nine electronic devices seized at the time of the defendants' arrest in March which experts are struggling to unlock and access and he does not know when or whether that information will become available to him.

There are a number of requirements in place for the government to provide evidence in its possession to the defense ahead of trial. That evidence is going through an expert whose job it is to identify any disclosure issues with the evidence, help to organize it, and provide it to the many defense attorneys involved — which avoids technical issues with the evidence, but also slows the process.

By all accounts, there are hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, transcripts, records, receipts, emails, and other evidence already disclosed in this case — terabytes of digital information. Fishman's attorney also revealed there were a number of drug test results and communications with the Hong Kong Jockey Club's drug testing lab as part of that evidence, though he did not expand further on what those results were.

Partially as a result of that volume of evidence, the timeline for the case was laid out only in part by Vyskocil Tuesday. Attorneys were asked to provide their first round of motions by Feb. 5; that first round is likely to include motions from defense attorneys to dismiss all or parts of the superseding indictment. The first round of motions is likely to be considered by the court at some point in April, with May as a possible target for a second round of attorney motions. Those dates could be revised further, depending on how much new evidence surfaces in the meantime.

Last week, a status conference for drug maker Scott Mangini set tentative deadlines for attorney motions and a trial date of May 10. Mangini's case also had a superseding indictment filed which did not substantially change the charges against him but which removed previous co-defendant Scott Robinson from his case. Robinson entered a plea in the case earlier this fall.

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