Horse Racing: Weekend highlights: Franco wins 7x on Sat.; I. Ortiz wins 5x on Sun.; Ky. Downs handled $34 million total; Baffert wins two Grade I at Del Mar

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Dr. Blarney races June 4 at Finger Lakes (NY).

• Now 11 years of age.
• Looking for his 28th win.
• Out for the 46th time.
• One of the few Mass.-breds still active.
• He has earned nearly $800,000.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Frankie Dettori is among the riders visiting Penn National for Friday's card in which the $400,000 Penn Mile is the feature. Prat, Castellano, Panici, Jaramillo are among other riders who will be there.

From Royal Ascot to Penn National. Pretty remarkable career for Frankie D.

Race	Purse	Race Type	Distance	Surface	Starters	Est. Post
1	$19,000	Claiming	6 F	Dirt	7	5:00 PM ET
2	$36,000	Allowance Optional Claiming	1 1/16 M	Dirt	7	5:30 PM ET
3	$100,000	Lyphard S.	1 1/16 M	Turf	10	6:00 PM ET
4	$100,000	With Anticipation S.	1 1/16 M	Turf	11	6:35 PM ET
5	$150,000	Penn Oaks	1 M	Turf	12	7:10 PM ET
6	$400,000	Penn Mile S.	1 M	Turf	10	7:45 PM ET
7	$50,000	Fabulous Strike S.	6 F	Dirt	10	8:15 PM ET
8	$50,000	Penn Ladies Dash S.	6 F	Dirt	7	8:45 PM ET
9	$15,000	Claiming	6 F	Dirt	8	9:12 PM ET
10	$12,000	Claiming	5 1/2 F	Dirt	7	9:39 PM ET
11	$15,000	Maiden Claiming	1 M	Dirt	9	10:05 PM ET

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Leading graded stakes winning riders in 2024:
Source: x.com

Gulfstream (Florida):

• Edgard Zayas rode three winners including one for Heather Smullen, a former exercise rider who won her first race as a trainer with her fourth attempt.
• Saffie Joseph, Jr. had a 3-win day.

Horseshoe Indianapolis (Indiana):

• Race 5: The $.50 Pick 4 paid over $25,000. The $.50 Pick 5 paid over $43,000.
• Race 4: The $2 double paid close to $1,400.
• Race 3: The longest shot of all in a field of 10, at 74-to-1, lit up the board.

Churchill Downs (Kentucky):

• Race 8: The $,50 Pick 5 paid over $63,000.
• Jose Ortiz rode three winners. He leads the meet with 21 wins.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Frankie Dettori is among the riders visiting Penn National for Friday's card in which the $400,000 Penn Mile is the feature. Prat, Castellano, Panici, Jaramillo are among other riders who will be there.

From Royal Ascot to Penn National. Pretty remarkable career for Franki

Waited for that puppy all day. Frankie D.!

$8.80.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Friday, May 31, 2024

Belterra (Ohio):

• Race 2: Lipstick N Lashes (Perry Ouzts/Barbara Riley) won by more than seven lengths and gave the jockey his 7,435th win. The win total is fifth most all-time. He will turn 70 years of age on July 7.

Penn National (Pennsylvania):

• Card: Eleven races, six stakes with the Penn Mile the highlight.
• Handle: Exceeded $5.7 million which shattered the track record set last year at $4.5 million.
• Start Time: An earlier than normal first post, at 5:00.
• Frankie Dettori won the two biggest races on the card, his lone mounts. This is the first time the international superstar rode at Penn National. Since coming to the US in 2023, he has won 10 graded stakes including the Penn Mile tonight. Dettori, now 53, has backed off retirement plans.

​

• National Riders: Among the visiting jocks were Frankie Dettori, Javier Castellano, Paco Lopez, Umberto Rispoli and Emisael Jaramillo.
• Umberto Rispoli lost narrowly to Frankie Dettori in the two biggest races. He finished 4 0-2-2.
• Race 6: First World War (Frankie Dettori/Brendan Walsh) won the Grade 3 $400,000 Penn Mile in what was three-across-the-wire. First World War is now a multiple graded stakes winner.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1796693850700018106

• Race 5: Poolside With Slim (Frankie Dettori/Rusty Arnold) won the $150,000 Penn Oaks.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1796684539160678710

Gulfstream (Florida):

• Race 4: Goodbetterbest (Leonel Reyes/Elizabeth Dobles) gave the trainer her second straight win and fourth this month. She was in a ghastly slump entering May with just one prior win with 55 starters in 2024. She is now 5-for-69 this year. Dobles and Imaginary Stables no longer seem to be a team.
• Race 7: Lady Cha Cha (Kent Desormeaux/Laura Cazares) gave the jockey his first win at Gulfstream since 2014. Desormeaux could be moving his tack from California to Florida.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1796633577116803254

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

@CHRDANHUTCH
I got to hear the track caller at Cumberland. A little old-school with "with a rush" and the "grit of his teeth..." Good show. Buildings with signs "Maple Sugar House," "Restaurant" and "Farm Museum" along track side.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Todd Pletcher is in a 3-for-62 funk. Todd Pletcher!

 

[GKJ]

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Damn. He is tall. Never had his bug due to weight associated with height. Hopefully he is OK.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Frankie Dettori just rode the winning mount in the Jersey Derby at Monmouth. Not a bad 24 hours.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Steve Asmussen's sons both taken to hospitals.

Erik was hospitalized after an incident at Lone Star. Initial reports say no major injury.

Keith was hospitalized today in Kentucky.

 

[GKJ]

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Opening day to Belmont at Saratoga's four-day meet is Thursday, June 6. The cards will be released periodically through the weekend and the Belmont Stakes will be published Monday night.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1796573435386352107

BELMONT AT SARATOGA
Four-day meet

Date	Channel & Time
Thursday, June 6	FS2 12:30 - 6:00pm
Friday, June 7	FS2 12:00 - 6:00pm FS1 6:00 - 7:00pm
Saturday, June 8 Belmont Stakes Day	FS1 10:30am - 4:00pm FOX 4:00 - 7:00pm FS2 7:00 - 8:10pm
Sunday, June 9	FS2 12:30 - 3:00pm FS1 3:00 - 4:00pm FS2 4:00 - 6:00pm

All times Eastern; details are subject to change

DAY ONE: Thursday

Race	Purse	Race Type	Distance	Surface	Starters	Est. Post
1	$47,000	Maiden Claiming	1 1/16 M	Turf	16	12:50 PM ET
2	$150,000	Tremont S.	5 1/2 F	Dirt	8	1:22 PM ET
3	$90,000	Allowance	7 F	Dirt	9	1:55 PM ET
4	$150,000	Jersey Girl S.	6 F	Dirt	8	2:28 PM ET
5	$85,000	Maiden Special Weight	5 1/2 F	Turf	11	3:01 PM ET
6	$100,000	Maiden Special Weight	7 F	Dirt	10	3:35 PM ET
7	$110,000	Allowance	1 M	Dirt	10	4:09 PM ET
8	$85,000	Maiden Special Weight	1 1/16 M	Turf	16	4:43 PM ET
9	$150,000	Astoria S.	5 1/2 F	Dirt	9	5:17 PM ET
10	$250,000	Belmont Gold Cup S.	2 M	Turf	14	5:50 PM ET

Friday's Belmont at Saratoga card is intense.
DAY TWO: Friday

Race	Purse	Race Type	Distance	Surface	Starters	Est. Post
1	$100,000	Maiden Special Weight	7 F	Dirt	10	12:20 PM ET
2	$115,000	Allowance Optional Claiming	1 1/4 M	Dirt	9	12:53 PM ET
3	$65,000	Starter Allowance	1 1/8 M	Turf	16	1:27 PM ET
4	$65,000	Starter Allowance	7 F	Dirt	11	2:01 PM ET
5	$115,000	Allowance Optional Claiming	5 1/2 F	Turf	16	2:36 PM ET
6	$110,000	Allowance Optional Claiming	1 M	Turf	16	3:11 PM ET
7	$110,000	Allowance	6 F	Dirt	11	3:46 PM ET
8	$110,000	Allowance	6 1/2 F	Dirt	13	4:21 PM ET
9	$200,000	Intercontinental S. Presented by MTV Solutions	5 1/2 F	Turf	10	4:55 PM ET
10	$500,000	Just a Game S.	1 M	Turf	7	5:30 PM ET
11	$750,000	New York S. Presented by Rivers Casino	1 3/16 M	Turf	13	6:05 PM ET
12	$500,000	DK Horse Acorn S.	1 1/8 M	Dirt	9	6:40 PM ET

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Saturday, June 1, 2024

• Paco Lopez. Frankie Dettori and Javier Castellano all won late Friday at Penn, today they won elsewhere.

Monmouth (New Jersey):

• Paco Lopez puts up extraordinary numbers in New Jersey as the norm but today he alternated wins with an impressive 10 5-0-3 day. Five wins!

Gulfstream Park (Florida):

• Race 11: Dialithic (Edgar Perez/Elizabeth Dobles) gave the trainer her third straight win. She entered May with just one prior win with 55 starters in 2024. She is now 6-for-70 this year. As stated, she seems to have separated from her main owners Imaginary Stables. Maybe she is rebounding, if so.

Churchill (Kentucky):

• Card: Six of the 11 races were stakes including four graded.
• Handle: $16 million.
• Irad Ortiz, Jr. rode three winners.
• Winning Jockeys in Graded Stakes: Flavien Prat, Javier Castellano, Luis Saez and Florent Geroux.
• Winning Trainers in Graded Stakes: Charlie Appleby, Bill Mott, Mike Maker and Brad Cox.

Woodbine (Ontario):

• Card: Four of the 10 races were graded stakes.
• Winning Jockeys in Graded Stakes: Kazushi Kimura, Pietro Moran (a first), Patrick Husbands and Sahin Civaci.
• Winning Trainers in Graded Stakes: Julia Carey (third lifetime), Kevin Attard and Mark Casse who had two.
• Race 7: Fashionably Fab (Pietro Moran/ Kevin Attard) won the Grade 3 $135,000 Belle Mahone Stakes. The victory gave the rider his eighth lifetime win and his first graded stakes. Moran, an exercise rider for Attard, began riding competitively last year.
• Race 9: Palazzi (Sahin Civaci/Mark Casse) won the Grade 2 $175,000 Eclipse Stakes. Casse, in both the US and Canadian Halls of Fame, finished 1-3-4 and of course, as the old adage states in horse racing, "when a trainer has multiple entered always bet the longest shot." The 6-to-1 was a 20-to-1 morning line and was Casse's biggest odds. A 3-way thriller:

​

Sunday, June 2, 2024

Laurel (Maryland):

• Ederik Robles, the 16-year-old bug who has been making a name this year at Delaware and now Maryland, won three times including delivering a 32-to-1 bomber gate-to-wire.
• Race 11: Prove My Love (Jeiron Barbosa/Cathal Lynch) looked determined to pull a sweet upset at 14-to-1 but it appears the rider misjudged the finish line. It happens but this deserves some attention (24:20 below):

​

​

Churchill (Kentucky):

• Race 7: Delahaye (Tyler Gafflalione/Chad Brown) won a graded stakes for the first time in winning the $250,000 Grade 3 Old Forester Mint Julep Stakes.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1797358647086821813

Hawthorne (Illinois):

• David Cohen is winning at 29% this meet and has 28 wins in 2024 which is 10 more than his total of 2023. The rider won 114 times in 2018 but has seen his total drop every year until 2024. He was riding at places such as Oaklawn but seems to have found a comfort zone at Hawthorne.
• Larry Rivelli, a star in Illinois, is boasting a 42% win clip.The trainer has 21 wins with 50 starts.

Woodbine (Ontario):

• Sofia Vives, with 17 wins, leads all jockeys in the early stages of the meet that extends to December. From Florida via South Carolina, she has found a home in Ontario.
• Sahin Civaci, from western Canada via Turkey, has been stellar most of the meet with 15 wins and a 33% win percentage.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

The four day meet at the Spa is estimated to bring a $50 million impact to the region. Weather forecasts show precipitation throughout the event. Saratoga had terrible weather for much of last summer.

Prelims are out for Saturday's Saratoga card. Awaiting the Belmont draw which is Monday night.

 

[GKJ]

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

TV info once again:

Date	Channel & Time
Thursday, June 6	FS2 12:30 - 6:00pm
Friday, June 7	FS2 12:00 - 6:00pm FS1 6:00 - 7:00pm
Saturday, June 8 Belmont Stakes Day	FS1 10:30am - 4:00pm FOX 4:00 - 7:00pm FS2 7:00 - 8:10pm
Sunday, June 9	FS2 12:30 - 3:00pm FS1 3:00 - 4:00pm FS2 4:00 - 6:00pm

Day 3 of the Belmont at Saratoga 4-day meet:
Saturday, June 8, 2024

Race	Purse	Race Type	Distance	Surface	Starters	Est. Post
1	$110,000	Allowance	1 M	Dirt	8	10:45 AM ET
2	$110,000	Allowance Optional Claiming	1 M	Turf	14	11:18 AM ET
3	$115,000	Allowance Optional Claiming	6 1/2 F	Dirt	9	11:52 AM ET
4	$350,000	True North S. Presented by F. W. Webb	6 1/2 F	Dirt	7	12:31 PM ET
5	$350,000	Poker S.	1 M	Turf	8	1:11 PM ET
6	$350,000	Suburban S.	1 1/4 M	Dirt	8	1:51 PM ET
7	$500,000	Ogden Phipps S. Presented by Ford	1 1/8 M	Dirt	6	2:36 PM ET
8	$500,000	Woody Stephens S. Presented by Mohegan Sun	7 F	Dirt	12	3:22 PM ET
9	$500,000	Jaipur S. Presented by Resolute Racing	5 1/2 F	Turf	16	4:08 PM ET
10	$1,000,000	Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan H.	1 M	Dirt	6	4:52 PM ET
11	$1,000,000	Resorts World Casino Manhattan S.	1 3/16 M	Turf	9	5:36 PM ET
12	$2,000,000	Belmont S. Presented by NYRA Bets	1 1/4 M	Dirt	10	6:41 PM ET
13	$85,000	Maiden Special Weight	1 1/16 M	Turf	16	7:27 PM ET
14	$110,000	Allowance	5 1/2 F	Turf	15	8:02 PM ET

Day 4 of the 4-day Belmont at Saratoga meet:
Sunday, June 9, 2004

Race	Purse	Race Type	Distance	Surface	Starters	Est. Post
1	$150,000	Beverly R. Steinman Hurdle H.	2 3/8 M	Hurdle	8	12:50 PM ET
2	$62,000	Claiming	6 1/2 F	Dirt	12	1:22 PM ET
3	$125,000	Mike Lee S.	7 F	Dirt	6	1:54 PM ET
4	$90,000	Allowance	7 F	Dirt	9	2:27 PM ET
5	$45,000	Maiden Claiming	1 1/16 M	Turf	16	3:01 PM ET
6	$200,000	Commentator S.	1 1/8 M	Dirt	7	3:33 PM ET
7	$45,000	Maiden Claiming	1 1/16 M	Turf	16	4:05 PM ET
8	$200,000	Critical Eye S.	1 1/8 M	Dirt	9	4:38 PM ET
9	$90,000	Allowance	1 1/16 M	Turf	16	5:10 PM ET
10	$125,000	Mount Vernon S.	1 M	Turf	10	5:43 PM ET
11	$125,000	Bouwerie S.	7 F	Dirt	10	6:16 PM ET
12	$125,000	Kingston S.	1 1/16 M	Turf	16	6:48 PM ET

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

 

[GKJ]

There’s only 7 runners

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Dr. Blarney races June 4 at Finger Lakes (NY).

• Now 11 years of age.
• Looking for his 28th win.
• Out for the 46th time.
• One of the few Mass.-breds still active.
• He has earned nearly $800,000.

Scratched by track vet.

That doesn't bode well for an 11-year-old. A good story as it unfolded but depending on the reason, the time may come to retire.

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

There’s only 7 runners

and madaket stables has a 3 out 8 chance to win the race, one trained by motion the other two by brown.

 

[GKJ]

and madaket stables has a 3 out 8 chance to win the race, one trained by motion the other two by brown.

In a different world there would be a bunch of coupled entries

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

In a different world there would be a bunch of coupled entries

they used to couple/triple the entries and stopped i believe at least 10 years ago in ny.

it's better this way as there's more value betting value. several times last year and once this year one of the brown horses would wire the field at a longshot price.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Less not forget that in the midst of something potentially majestic with the Belmont at Saratoga meet the next four days, that Golden Gate Fields is closing operations on Sunday. Another track lost means less jobs and certainly less breeding which makes the unique species that is a thoroughbred lesser in demand. Arlington, Calder, Suffolk, Hollywood, Atlantic City, Portland Meadows, Rockingham and many others and now Golden Gate.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Brittany Russell surrounded by Bob Baffert and Chad Brown. Gotta love it.

June 8:

RACE 10 Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan H. (Grade I) POST TIME - 4:52 PM ET​

Purse $1,000,000. One Mile. A Handicap For Three Year Olds And Upward.

P#	PP	Horse	A/S	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1	Castle Chaos (KY)	6/G	D Davis	118	R N Falcone, Jr.	20/1
2	2	National Treasure (KY)	4/C	F Prat	125	B Baffert	8/5
3	3	Post Time (MD)	4/C	S Russell	120	B T Russell	7/2
4	4	Blazing Sevens (KY)	4/C	M Franco	122	C C Brown	8/1
5	5	Hoist the Gold (KY)	5/H	J R Velazquez	120	D Stewart	15/1
6	6	White Abarrio (KY)	5/H	I Ortiz, Jr.	126	R E Dutrow, Jr.	6/5