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Cricket Stadium to Open Adjacent to Lone Star Park

A 6,000-seat defunct minor league baseball park adjacent to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, is going to be retrofitted into what promoters are hoping will be the premier venue for the sport of cricket in the United States.

“We’re going to put Grand Prairie on the global map because hopefully when we get World Cups and international events, this is going to be one of the key stadiums we’re playing matches in,” USA Cricket chairman Paraag Marathe told ESPN. “The flagship where we’re going to be first putting up our flag and announcing USA Cricket to the rest of the world is going to be right here in Grand Prairie.”

The city-owned stadium, which will be rebranded from its current name of AirHogs Stadium, sits about a thousand feet to the southeast of the track’s main entrance. Opened at a cost of $20 million in 2008, it housed an independent minor league baseball team until the club folded this year under the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic. The terms of the cricket deal for the ballpark were described as a 15-year lease, with $10 million in renovations required to bring it up to international cricket pitch standards.

“One of the major challenges that USA Cricket officials may have is overcoming a string of underwhelming ventures in other cities,” ESPN reported, noting recently failed ventures to gain a foothold for the sport in Indianapolis and at two venues in Florida.

“We just have really great infrastructure around AirHogs Stadium,” Marathe said. “The opportunity to grow and develop…from a geography and infrastructure standpoint.”

Cricket is one of the most-viewed sports in the world, with its governing body reporting an annual audience of 1.6 billion. Although essentially off the radar of U.S. gamblers, the Cricket World Cup annually rates as one of the largest global wagering events.

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Into Mischief Passes Tapit, Sets Single-Season Earnings Record

With another productive weekend, which included a victory by the impressive first-time starter and “TDN Rising Star” Life Is Good at Del Mar, Into Mischief has set a new Northern Hemisphere record for most single-season earnings by a sire. According to TDN sire stats, Into Mischief’s offspring have earned $19,994,815 this year. The record had been held by Tapit, whose progeny earned $19,914,317 in 2016.

A win Saturday at Churchill Downs Saturday by Asar in an $85,000 maiden special weight race, moved Into Mischief into the top spot. He added to his totals with a win Sunday by Valletta in a $40,000 maiden claimer at Aqueduct and then picked up another $34,200 when the Bob Baffert-trained Life Is Good romped to a 9 1/2-length win as the 1-5 favorite in the betting.

With earnings of $11,465,367, Tapit is a distant second behind Into Mischief in 2020.

“He’s a remarkable horse,” said Spendthrift Farm General Manager Ned Toffey. “There’s not a lot left to say about him. He’s shown that he can get any level of horse and at the same time is very consistent. That’s what has allowed him to get to the level he has gotten to. He is so good mentally. Such a high percentage of the mares he breeds result in, first of all, a live foal, and, second of all, a good sound foal. They get to the racetrack and they perform. He’s been prolific at doing that and the offspring have been prolific at doing their job from a consistency standpoint and a brilliancy standpoint. We are proud to be associated with him.”

In addition to the earnings record, Into Mischief leads all stallions in several categories for the year. They include number of winners (178), wins (266), black-type winners (28), and black-type performers (58). With three Grade I winners, he is tied with Speightstown, Violence, War Front and More Than Ready for the top spot in that category.

Into Mischief’s 2020 accomplishments will almost certainly include a Horse of the Year title. With his wins in the GI Haskell S., the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic, Authentic is a clear favorite for that title. He, alone, accounts for $6,160,000 of the total earned by Into Mischief’s offspring this year.

“Authentic is the horse that checked the last box in terms of his ability to get a Classic horse,” Toffey said. “That was the one question people still had about him, as remarkable as he has been as a sire. He started off at such a low price point, so the mare quality back then was not exactly stellar. But the great stallions seem to be able to overcome that. As he has added quality, you see the results of that. And the quality only continues to improve. As the mares have improved, you are starting to see these Classic-type of results. Authentic has very much demonstrated that.”

Into Mischief’s year also included a win in the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, the GI Acorn S. and the GI Test S. by Gamine and a win by Dayoutoftheoffice in the GI Frizette S.

Into Mischief’s stud fee for 2021 has been set at $225,000.

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Midlantic December Mixed & HORA Catalog Online

The catalog for the upcoming Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Mixed & Horses of Racing Age Supplement is now online at www.fasigtipton.com. The sale is scheduled for a single session to take place Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Maryland State Fairgrounds at Timonium beginning at 11 a.m.

Hips 205-210 in the supplemental catalog consist of yearlings, weanlings and in-foal mares, while hips 211-283 are all horses of racing age.

“This sale’s supplemental catalogue annually offers one of the largest groups of horses of racing age on the North American Thoroughbred auction calendar,” said Midlantic Director of Sales Paget Bennett. “With more than 70 horses of racing age, there are tremendous ‘ready to run’ opportunities at all levels for both regional and national racing stables.”

The new entries can also be viewed on the Equineline sales app. Print versions of the supplemental catalog will be available on the sales grounds at sale time.

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Tom’s Ready Arrives at Old Friends

Tom’s Ready (More Than Ready), a three-time graded-stakes winner around one turn, has been added to the roster at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Center in Georgetown, Kentucky.

The 7-year-old, trained by Dallas Stewart for Gayle and Tom Benson’s GMB Racing, was runner-up in the GIII Lecomte S. and GII Louisiana Derby in 2015, but cut back to one turn to win the GII Woody Stephens S. over seven furlongs and the GIII Ack Ack S. going a mile that season. Winner of the GIII Bold Ruler H. in 2016, the Pennsylvania-bred originally entered stud at Spendthrift and was later relocated to Red River Farms in Louisiana.

“It gives us great pleasure to have our wonderful Tom’s Ready retire to Old Friends,” Gayle Benson said. “He was our first purchase, he is a Grade II winner, and he raced in the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup, so we are very proud of him and he is deserving of the great care that Old Friends will provide.”

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