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Free Past Performances Available For Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5

Races from Aqueduct Racetrack, Oaklawn Park and Tampa Bay Downs will comprise the Cross Country Pick 5 on Saturday as part of the wager hosted by the New York Racing Association, Inc.

Live coverage will be available with America's Day at the Races on FOX Sports. Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/cross-country-wagers.

Aqueduct will commence the sequence with a six-furlong allowance optional claiming sprint in Race 8 at 3:54 p.m. Eastern. Golani Brigade, the 2-1 morning-line favorite for trainer Chad Brown, will make his 5-year-old debut while South Africa, at 5-2, has finished first or second in his last four starts for trainer Michelle Nevin.

Oaklawn will kick off the stakes action with the $200,000 Martha Washington, a 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Oaks qualifier for 3-year-old fillies going one mile in Race 5 at 4:06 p.m. Coach, listed at 7-5, is 3-0-1 in four starts for trainer Brad Cox, including a win in the Rags to Riches in October at Churchill Downs and a strong third in the Grade 2 Golden Rod in November at the same track. Joy's Rocket, listed at 5-2 for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, has won her last two starts, capturing both the Songbird and the Letellier Memorial. Novel Squall, Will's Secret and Sylvia Q will all be looking for their first respective stakes wins.

Tampa Bay will get in on the fun in the third leg as a full field of 3-year-old filly maidens compete at one mile on the turf in Race 8 at 4:10 p.m. The Irish-bred Rastafara will make her first career start for Brown at 3-1 odds, while conditioner Christophe Clement will send out a first-time starter of his own in Tranquillina [4-1].

Brown will send out another contender with Mystic Night in Aqueduct's Race 9, a one-mile maiden special weight, at 4:25 p.m. Mystic Night will be making his third career start and comprise an eight-horse field that includes slight 7-2 favorite Mandatory, who has run second and third in three career starts for trainer John Kimmel.

Oaklawn will host the finale with a six-furlong allowance sprint in Race 6 at 4:38 p.m. Cox has another formidable challenger in The Mary Rose, who will be making her first start for her new conditioner after previously being trained by William VanMeter. The Mary Rose, 3-1, drew post 9 with 4-1 selection Bettyann will also run for the first time for a new trainer, breaking from post 10 for Kenny Smith.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool. The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

Cross Country Pick 5 – Saturday, Jan. 30:
Leg 1 – Aqueduct, Race 8: (3:54 p.m.)
Leg 2 – Oaklawn, Race 5, Martha Washington: (4:06 p.m.)
Leg 3 – Tampa Bay, Race 8: (4:10 p.m.)
Leg 4 – Aqueduct, Race 9: (4:25 p.m.)
Leg 5 – Oaklawn, Race 6: (4:38 p.m.)

The post Free Past Performances Available For Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Equibase Analysis: Greatest Honour Deserves Top Billing In Holy Bull

This Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Holy Bull Stakes begins the three race series for sophomores at Gulfstream Park which continues with the Fountain of Youth Stakes and ends with the Florida Derby. With “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points on line, the Holy Bull is the starting off spot for many aspiring 3-year-olds hoping to prove themselves one of the 20 which can enter the starting gate in Louisville on the first Saturday in May.

In terms of horses with stakes credentials, 2020 Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes winner Sittin On Go deserves mentioning, but with ninth and sixth place finishes in two starts since the win there is certainly the question of whether he can return to top form.

Papetu and Awesome Gerry recently finished second and third, respectively, in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes over the track in a one-turn mile race and if they can improve and run as well in this two-turn race may have a strong say in the outcome.

Another Holy Bull entrant with stakes form is Tarantino. The colt is trying dirt for the first time after three tries on grass, one of them a runner-up effort in the Zuma Beach Stakes last October.

Then there's an impressive pair of maiden winners from the barn of Todd Pletcher in the form of Amount and Prime Factor. Both are stretching out to two-turns off debut wins by five and three-quarter lengths and eight and three-quarter lengths, respectively.

Greatest Honour also broke his maiden in his most recent start but he did so at the distance of the Holy Bull.

Jirafales and Willy Boi enter the Holy Bull off visually impressive wins in sprints and round out the field as they stretch out in distance for the first time.

Greatest Honour started his career sprinting and finished third in two races at seven furlongs, improving from a debut 84 Equibase Speed Figure to 89 in his second start. Stretched out to two turns (nine furlongs) for career start number three in November, Greatest Honour regressed slightly to an 85 figure but ran a much better race, battling head-and-head the entire length of the stretch before losing by a head at the wire. Shipping to Gulfstream in December, Greatest Honour improved markedly at the distance of the Holy Bull when maturely rallying from seventh of nine early to win by a length and one-half. In doing so he improved to a field high 104 figure.

This appears to make him the one to beat, because even if some of the other impressive recent winners improve, they will have to improve significantly more than Greatest Honour to beat this colt, even if he just repeats his last effort. As a son of Tapit, sire of many top 3-year-olds in recent years such as Enforceable, Hofburg and Tacitus, Greatest Honour should only get better over the course of his sophomore campaign and therefore appears to be the one to beat in this year's Holy Bull Stakes.

Sittin On Go won his debut last summer impressively by four lengths in a five furlong sprint, then won the Iroquois Stakes at one mile in only the second start of his career. The improvement from an 80 figure in his debut to 95 second out portended great things for this colt, but that did not pan out. After a ninth place effort in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and sixth place finish in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, Sittin On Go was given some time off to mature. It appears that time off helped him as he's been in steady training at Gulfstream Park for over a month. Given that he ran so well fresh last year and that his first crop sire, Brody's Cause, has had decent success, I think Sittin On Go could run well in the Holy Bull Stakes by repeating his Iroquois Stakes effort and should be considered a contender.

Papetu was overlooked in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes four weeks ago when sent to post at odds of 20 to 1. Although no match for the winner, Papetu nevertheless finished well for second in the field of nine with an 87 figure he could improve upon in his second start following four months off, so he can be given a look at the outcome as well.

Prime Factor (89 figure winning last month) and Amount (84 figure winning last month) come from the top barn of Todd Pletcher, who according to a STATS Race Lens query wins at a hefty 33 percent rate with horses which are stretching out from a sprint to a route in their second career starts. Still, asking horse to both go from maiden ranks to graded stakes and at the same time from one turn to two turns can be a big lift and considering other horses in this race have experience in stakes and routes, I think they may fall short of being able to win.

Awesome Gerry finished third in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes, one and one-quarter lengths from Papetu. He's earned back-to-back 84 figures and is not on the same pattern for improvement to be competitive here as some of the others in my opinion. Tarantino has two wins and a nose defeat to his credit in three career starts. In the best of those three, Tarantino finished second, beaten a nose, in the Zuma Beach Stakes in October and earned an 81 figure. As a son of Pioneer of the Nile, Tarantino should run as well on dirt but even that effort if repeated appears to fall short of what it will take to win this race. Willy Boi won at first asking then beat a restricted allowance field earlier this month, earning an 85 figure in doing so. He appears to have the same double ask of running two-turns and trying stakes for the first time as many of the others. Jirafales won at first asking in November and earned a 71 figure in doing so. Even with logical improvement as a 3-year-old it appears he could be far short of being competitive against this field.

Win Contenders, in probability order:
Greatest Honour
Sittin on Go
Papetu

Holy Bull Stakes – Grade 3
Race 11 at Gulfstream Park
Saturday, Jan. 30 – Post Time 4:50 PM E.T.
One and One Sixteenth Miles
3-Year-Olds
Purse: $200,000

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2021 National Horseplayers Championship Tour Begins Friday At HorsePlayers.com

The 2021 National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) Tour officially begins this Friday, Jan. 29 with a $75 online qualifier to be held on HorsePlayers.com, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) announced today.

Friday's contest will be the first NHC qualifier to offer 2021 NHC Tour points awarded to Tour members who finish in the top 10 percent of officially-sanctioned NHC contests and among the first contests to offer berths to the $3,000,000-estimated 2022 NTRA National Horseplayers Championship to be held at Bally's Las Vegas Jan. 28-30, 2022. The officially declared Tour points leader will be eligible for a $5 million bonus should he or she win the 2022 NHC.

The 2021 NHC Tour, which offers an additional $365,000 in prize money, runs through January 9, 2022 and is expected to offer hundreds of online and onsite opportunities to compete for an NHC berth. The top 75 individual point leaders on the overall year-end Tour Leader Board, who have not already qualified through an official on-track or online contest, will automatically qualify into the 2022 NHC. Horseplayers cannot buy an entry into the NHC; they must earn a berth in qualifying contests held throughout the year.

Tour membership of $50 must be paid prior to participating in an online or on-track NHC qualifier to be eligible to win a berth in the NHC. To sign up for the NHC Tour, go to www.ntra.com/membership.

For more information on the NHC Tour benefits and to view the official rules go to www.nhctour.com. A schedule of 2021 Tour events will be updated regularly at https://www.ntra.com/nhc/nhc-events/.

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KY Supreme Court Won’t Hear HHR Legality Case

The Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled Jan. 21 that it will not rehear an appealed Sept. 24 decision that told a lower court to re-examine the legality of historical horse race (HHR) gaming in the commonwealth, keeping the most crucial form of funding for purses at the state's five Thoroughbred tracks in peril.

HHR handled $2.2 billion during the Commonwealth's most recent fiscal year, and revenue from that form of gaming annually contributes tens of millions of dollars to the Kentucky purses. This form of gaming has been operational–but challenged by opponents in the courts as illegal–for the better part of a decade on the grounds that HHR does not meet the definition of pari-mutuel wagering.

Although Thursday's Supreme Court decision was not entirely unexpected, it eliminates an avenue for keeping HHR functional in Kentucky, making it clearer that getting HHR passed via new legislation remains the Thoroughbred industry's best path forward, according to some stakeholders.

Tonya Abeln, the vice president of communications for the gaming corporation Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), told the Louisville Courier-Journal that, “The Kentucky Supreme Court clearly told the industry to work with the General Assembly on achieving a legislative solution. Our top priority for the 2021 legislative session is maintaining the status quo to ensure historical horse racing can continue operating in Kentucky as it has for the past decade.”

CDI, which owns the tracks and gaming licenses associated with Kentucky's Churchill Downs and Turfway Park, has already halted reconstruction on its demolished Turfway grandstand, vowing late in 2020 not to continue until HHR's legality gets sorted out.

Officials at Keeneland Race Course told WTVQ in a statement that, “We are aware of the decision and are evaluating our options moving forward.”

Although the Supreme Court case only involves HHR machines of a particular brand, the gaming systems operate in broadly the same manner throughout Kentucky, meaning that a precedent established for one version is likely to affect all forms of HHR gaming.

But the near-term fate of HHR remaining operational was still murky as of Thursday evening.

“The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission [KHRC] will act in accordance with the terms of the judgement entered by the Franklin Circuit Court, pursuant to the September 24, 2020, opinion of the Kentucky Supreme Court,” stated a Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet statement posted to Twitter. “The KHRC will not provide additional comment at this time, due to ongoing litigation.”

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