Horse Racing: Maryland racing down to 127 dates in 2025; Flavien Prat nearing records for most stakes and graded stakes won in a year

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

the reasoning was wasn't CD shuttered a bit last year while they investigated....hence why CD/Ellis are combined

I didn't catch the audio, so perhaps.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Friday preview @ Cumberland Raceway;

First Tracks Cumberland – Maine Harness Racing

www.firsttrackscumberland.com

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Maryland racing on the turf Friday. Looks to be a better weather day Friday than Saturday.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Golden Gate Fields has canceled Sunday's card.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

A quarter of an inch of rain for Baltimore forecasted for Saturday (tomorrow).

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Ray Lewis "Riders Up" FOR Preakness

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Brittany! 13-1 gate to wire.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Approaching $19 million bet at Pimlico today. I think the record is $27 million.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Cherie DeVaux has a training triple at Pimlico.

Over $2 million bet in race 12.

$23 million bet so far on the card.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

My math shows a record-handle of more than $28 million. Well done Maryland!

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Confirmed via Maryland.

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

i thought your brittany nipped my 6 horse at the wire on the last race of the card.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

i thought your brittany nipped my 6 horse at the wire on the last race of the card.

Is that "your" horse? I didn't know you ran in Maryland. Congrats either way. Maybe the best race of the day.

This was the most frustrating for me: I needed her 9 up for third (24-to-1 with 1 MTP from what I recall, off at 15-to-1). The 9 was off the screen more than once but finished within a nostril of third as part of a tri. Approx $300. Watch the nine in this race.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Friday, May 17, 2024

Pimlico (Maryland):

• Card: 100th edition of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. Six of the 14 races were stakes.
• Handle: A record-setting handle of $28.4 million+ of which about $3.5 million was bet on the feature.
• Leading Jockey: Jorge Ruiz had the riding triple.
• Leading Trainer: Cherie DeVaux, a protege of future Hall-of-Famer Chad Brown, sent three horses to Maryland and each was a winner.
• Race 10: Mystic Lake (Flavien Prat/Saffie Joseph) romped in the $150,000 Grade 3 Miss Preakness.

​

• Race 12: Pyrenees (Brian Hernandez, Jr./Cherie DeVaux) won the $250,000 Grade 3 Pimlico Special.

​

• Race 13: Gun Song (John Velazquez/Mark Hennig) won the $300,000 Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan. The 3-year-old daughter of the tremendous Gun Runner was purchased for $400,000. She is 6 3-1-1 lifetime.

​

• Race 14: Wow Whata Summer (Jorge Ruiz/James Lawrence) won the finale by a nose in perhaps the most electrifying race of the day.

​

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

Is that "your" horse? I didn't know you ran in Maryland. Congrats either way. Maybe the best race of the day.

This was the most frustrating for me: I needed her 9 up for third (24-to-1 with 1 MTP from what I recall, off at 15-to-1). The 9 was off the screen more than once but finished within a nostril of third as part of a tri. Approx $300. Watch the nine in this race.

oh no i'm not an owner, just some small time bettor from nyc. working at home the path to 5pm punchout was slow so i figured why not try pimlico today.

that's a tough one. the jock on the 10 horse was going hard as russell on your 9.

brittany has potential to be one of the great trainers, whether male or female. i think the only female trainer that has ever handled about the same volume of horses is linda rice, and i think brittany may already have eclipsed her in many levels.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

oh no i'm not an owner, just some small time bettor from nyc. working at home the path to 5pm punchout was slow so i figured why not try pimlico today.

that's a tough one. the jock on the 10 horse was going hard as russell on your 9.

brittany has potential to be one of the great trainers, whether male or female. i think the only female trainer that has ever handled about the same volume of horses is linda rice, and i think brittany may already have eclipsed her in many levels.

Nice. I thought you had horses in New York. Good hit. Maryland racing has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. Today is going to be more difficult with the weather being uncooperative. Here's wishing good profits for handicappers, fun and entertainment to be maximized and safety and success to all involved in the sport.

Brittany Russell is an outsider from PA who trained under Brad Cox, Jimmy Jerkens, Ron Moquett and Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard (who passed last year). Good schooling. Her story caught my eye from the early stages which isn't uncommon when handicapping and seeing a newbie. Remember, some trainers are active in their 80s and a few in their 90s. Plenty will get their starts in the smaller and midlevel markets rather than the big leagues. She eventually married Sheldon. The bubbling of a youthful trainer has grown to someone who is now in the early stages of something stronger. While Maryland isn't New York, Kentucky or Florida, she has extended her portfolio slightly. Their children are frequently in the winner's circle and it wasn't uncommon, when they were smaller, to see her hold one of them while tending to the immediacy of trainer obligations.

She seems composed and in interviews has always praised her staff including riders (husband or Jevian Toledo are the go-to jocks -- same agent). She let her body of work sell itself. Getting players like Mike Repole is significant. As far as gender, she has seemingly downplayed the comparisons. While the most prominent of US races have limited field sizes, there are plenty of stakes that have female trainers and jocks throughout the year. Big-time owners tend to have comfort zones with trainers and it can be tough to crack that shell (Seth Klarman/Klaravich Stables with Chad Brown for instance) and that can be understandable when someone plops $400,000 for a foal or yearling.

Linda Rice, as you mentioned, is from a large and growing racing family and being in New York and for many years, she is well-known. Kathleen O'Connell recently broke the record for most wins by a female trainer, a career that began in Michigan (a state now void of the sport) but rose to prominence in the great state of Florida where she has built countless connections through the years.

Racing isn't a pretty sport when the cameras aren't rolling. Having spoken to an abundance of insiders through the years, and having many as friends, the stories are bewildering. Being in sometimes cold places at 4:00 a.m. with a horse, having your staff caring for an animal 24 hours, cleaning stalls and all that comes with that responsibility, training, dealing with jockeys, agents, owners and them with trainers, the competition is mind-boggling. No guaranteed contracts in the sport. Teammates last minutes not years. One race the jockey is riding for you as a trainer, the next race, he or she is the opposition. It is a very complex sport and unique in some areas.

Horse racing gets stigmatized in certain segments or is totally avoided. There are many exceptional stories and that of the Russells is ongoing, to win Maryland titles, to come from scratch and elevate. I think her story would be beneficial nationwide and certainly in other quarters it would be household by now. However, the "less-is-more" standard can be applied as well. The average sports fan knows Bob Baffert and probably everyone else is in the backseat.

With HISA's (fed gvt.) involvement, trainers' careers are under microscopes and the recent situation with George Weaver in New York (potential two-year suspension) -- popular and seemingly with little shady history -- has intensified an already tough business with medications and over usage in some quarters. X (Twitter) has been on fire with this situation and an owner-baseball player Alex Bregman (I don't follow baseball too closely but his account has been forwarded to me) has been among the most vocal in support of Weaver and critical of the suspension.

Back to Russell, and with all trainers, some will touch the border of maximum allowance and some will overstep it but the fear now is the slightest oversight can damage a person. Ultimately trainers are and always have been responsible for their barns. There are already a few doubters on places like X but that is not unsurprising as everyone from Karl Broberg to Cox have faced with their successes on differing levels. I think she is a superstar and have said so for a while but even superstars falter.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Wesley Ward's remarkable numbers in 2024:

Category	Starts	W-P-S (1st-2nd-3rd)	Percentage	Lifetime Pct.
2-year-olds	20	11-1-0	55%	24%
1st-Timers	38	16-5-3	42%	25%

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

California updates:

• Northern Cal: Alameda County Fair to run in Pleasanton from June 14 through July 7. The fair tracks will conduct racing for the rest of the calendar year.
• Southern Cal: Los Angeles County Fair to run a daytime race meet at Los Alamitos Race Course from June 22 through July 7.
• Southern Cal: Del Mar will open July 20 and run into early September.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

TELEVISION COVERAGE FOR RACING TODAY (May 18):

"America's Day at the Races"	12:30 p.m.-5 p.m.	FS2
Live coverage of horse racing from Pimlico	1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.	CNBC and Peacock
Broadcast of the Preakness Stakes	4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.	NBC and Peacock
Live coverage of horse racing	post time varies	FanDuel TV
"America's Day at the Races" broadcast of harness racing from The Meadowlands	9 p.m.-11 p.m.	FS2
Live coverage of horse racing	post time varies	Racetrack Television Network

PREAKNESS STAKES

• What: The second leg of the Triple Crown
• Site: Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, MD.
• Date: Saturday, May 18, 2024.
• Edition: 149th.
• Cheat Sheet: 2024 Preakness Stakes Cheat Sheet: Get to Know the Horses
• Network TV and Streaming:
  
  • CNBC and Peacock 1:30 pm ET
  • NBC and Peacock at 4:30 pm ET
  • FanDuel (formerly TVG) -- racing from multiple tracks

Race	Purse	Race Type	Distance	Surface	Starters	Est. Post
1	$52,000	Maiden Special Weight	5 F	Turf	10	10:30 AM ET
2	$54,000	Allowance	1 1/16 M	Turf	10	11:05 AM ET
3	$54,000	Allowance	6 F	Dirt	7	11:41 AM ET
4	$100,000	Skipat S.	6 F	Dirt	7	12:16 PM ET
5	$52,000	Maiden Special Weight	5 F	Turf	11	12:51 PM ET
6	$200,000	Chick Lang S.	6 F	Dirt	8	1:28 PM ET
7	$100,000	Gallorette S.	1 1/16 M	Turf	9	2:08 PM ET
8	$100,000	Maryland Sprint S.	6 F	Dirt	7	2:48 PM ET
9	$100,000	James W. Murphy S.	1 M	Turf	12	3:30 PM ET
10	$100,000	Sir Barton S. sponsored by Brandon and Diannah Perry to Benefit The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance	1 1/16 M	Dirt	10	4:10 PM ET
11	$100,000	Jim McKay Turf Sprint S.	5 F	Turf	12	4:53 PM ET
12	$500,000	Dinner Party S.	1 1/8 M	Turf	12	5:52 PM ET
13	$2,000,000	Preakness S.	1 3/16 M	Dirt	9	7:01 PM ET
14	$58,000	Allowance Optional Claiming	1 1/16 M	Dirt	7	7:43 PM ET

Jockeys in the Preakness:

Name	Age	Place of Birth
Joe Bravo	52	New Jersey
Frankie Dettori	53	Italy
Tyler Gaffalione	29	Florida
Brian Hernandez, Jr.	38	Louisiana
Juan Hernandez	32	Mexico
Irad Ortiz, Jr.	31	Puerto Rico
Flavien Prat	31	France
Joel Rosario	39	Dominican Republic
Jaime Torres	25	Puerto Rico

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Pimlico's turf is listed as good.

Race 1 is off.

Originally, TBA was listed.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

38-1 closed strongly to win race 2.

 

[GKJ]

Race 5 is off too

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

for race 2 here's hoping baffert's vet hasn't paid a visit the past 10 days.

maybe prat with another longshot?

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

interesting....
7-5 exacta will pay less than a 7-1 finish.
sheldon and britt are going to hold a big big party tonight.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Hubby-wife finish 1-2 , a rare competition, race 3. Bob Baffert went off even money and finished third. Russells beat Baffert.