Category: Blog Posts

TURFDOM NEWS AND NOTES for April 14, 2020

Santa Anita Park remained closed for the third consecutive week and there doesn’t appear much hope for them to return to racing in the near future. Officials from the track do have a meeting set up with the Los Angeles County Dept. of Health this Saturday, the 18th, to reassess the county’s position, but they do not appear to make any exceptions to the mandates set forth due to the virus. There was some talk of Santa Anita and Los Alamitos switching dates as they continue to run in the evenings, but that has been taken off the table. Los Al officials are afraid if they ran in the daytime, Orange County personnel may just cancel their evening quarter horse meet. Currently, that is the only track open in the state. The feeling from the TOC group is that if they don’t return to racing in the next couple of

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Kentucky Oaks Report for April 5

Kentucky Derby 2020 Report (4-10-20) Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Kentucky Derby 2020 will no longer be run on the first Saturday in May. The new date for the Derby is Saturday, Sept. 5. More points races will be added to the schedule in the near future. Let’s recap the Florida Derby and preview the Oaklawn Stakes. The next big race for the sophomore set is the $200,000 Oaklawn Stakes at a mile and an eighth on Saturday, April 11. The top three finishers will receive automatic berths into the rescheduled Arkansas Derby (May 2). A baker’s dozen will line up, and the pace should be honest with Basin, Sir Rick, Taishan, and Gold Street vying for early position. Bob Baffert always seems to have a live California shipper in these big Oaklawn Park sophomore routes, and this race is no exception. His $1 million purchase Thousand Words is the 5-2 morning line favorite.

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Santa Anita News and Notes for April 7

The Great Race Place continues to be closed for the second consecutive week for racing, however, training continues each day in the hope that the track will reopen sooner rather than later. In a nutshell, the L.A. County Dept. of Health has decided that thoroughbred racing at this facility is not an “essential” business to stay open in light of the current pandemic. The Stronach Group, which owns and operates the track, has done a very good job of outlining the reasons why the track should remain open for racing, but that has pretty much fallen on deaf ears so far. They continue to try and get the Department back to the negotiating table and iron out the differences, but have made little headway. The California Horse Racing Board should have been the one making the decision whether to race or not, but they pawned it off to the local

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Kentucky Oaks Report for April 5

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Kentucky Oaks has been pushed back four months. The new 2020 date for the Oaks is Friday, Sept. 4. More points races will be added to the schedule in the coming weeks and months. Let’s catch up on all the recent action. The next scheduled Oaks points race is the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Friday, May 1. The winner will receive 100 Oaks points. Kentucky Oaks 2020 Points Race Recaps Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) Recap (3-28-20) – Winner: Swiss Skydiver ($20.20) This was an oddly run race. Multiple contenders had early-pressing speed (Lake Avenue, Lucrezia, Spice Is Nice, Tonalist’s Shape), but Lake Avenue and Lucrezia were the only ones from that bunch to secure a forward position. I thought Swiss Skydiver was a live exotics contender from off the pace, but nobody else wanted the lead, so Paco Lopez took advantage and sent Ken McPeek’s filly straight to

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Santa Anita News and Notes for March 31

• As I write this early on Monday morning, I would say there is about a 50/50 chance that racing at Santa Anita will start up this weekend, or maybe even Friday. The L.A. County Dept. of Health shut down racing here this past week due the Covid-19 virus and it is up to the track’s management to convince the department that the racing of horses is an “essential” business. So far, there has been no positive viruses found at the race track and that includes about 750 employees, which take care of 1700 horses that live on the back side. Aidan Butler of Santa Anita along with the TOC group head up the charge. They feel that the continuation of racing at Santa Anita does not represent a health risk to the workers that live here at Santa Anita Park. Furthermore, there are not enough farms in the area

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Santa Anita Park Report (March 20-22)

Santa Anita Recap for Friday (3-20-20) Good main track and good turf course. Three front running sprint winners on dirt (6f, 5.5f, 6f). The turf course winners were a midpack stalker at 5.5 furlongs, a stalker at 5.5 furlongs, a stalker at a mile and an eighth, and a closer at one mile (rail at 30 feet).  Jeff Mullins saddled a pair of turf route winners.  The Rainbow 6 pool was $75,669, and multiple winning tickets paid $906.54 each. There will be a jackpot carryover of $17,324 when live racing resumes Saturday, March 21.  March 20 Claims: Race 2 – Buyback ($25k, Matthew Chew).    ————– Santa Anita Recap for Saturday (3-21-20) Fast main track and good turf course. One front running winner at seven panels on dirt. The turf course winners were a front runner at 5.5 furlongs, a stalker at a mile and an eighth, a stalker at 5.5 furlongs, a stalker at a mile

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Fast Figs – 583% Profit for Trifecta’s at Tampa Bay

With limited tracks running last week Fast Figs continues to show a solid profit for several tracks and bets. Below is a breakdown of how Fast Figs performed for each bet and track. The results shown below are based on using the horse with the highest Fast Fig in the top position in each exotic wager. The horse with the 2nd highest Fast Fig is used in the second spot in the exotics. The horse with the 3rd highest Fast Fig is used in the third spot and so on. The results assume that these are straight bets and not boxed and each bet placed is $2. In cases where there are 2 or more horses that share the same Fast Fig we look to the most recent FIRE and CPR number the horse has earned to rank the horses with the same Fast Figs. Learn more about how to

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Kentucky Oaks 2020 Report: March 22

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kentucky Oaks 2020 will no longer be run on the first Friday in May. The new date for the Oaks is Friday, Sept. 4. More points races will be added to the schedule in the coming weeks and months. Let’s catch up on all the recent action. The next scheduled Oaks points race is the Gulfstream Park Oaks on Saturday, March 28. Davona Dale 1-2 finishers Tonalist’s Shape and Spice Is Nice are expected to meet again in that contest. The winner will receive 100 Oaks points. Kentucky Oaks 2020 Points Race Recaps Busher Invitational Recap (3-7-20) – Winner: Water White ($37.20) Demoiselle 1-2 finishers Lake Avenue and Maiden were the two favorites in this spot, and Tampa Bay shipper Mo City was the third choice. None of them were around at the finish. Lake Avenue and Persisto battled on the pace, and 13-1 longshot

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Kentucky Derby 2020 Report: March 22

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kentucky Derby 2020 will no longer be run on the first Saturday in May. The new date for the Derby is Saturday, Sept. 5. More points races will be added to the schedule in the coming weeks and months. Let’s catch up on all the recent action. Last time, I noted that speed rules on the road to Kentucky Derby 2020. Since that post, three points races have run, and front runners captured two of those races. The next points race is the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on Saturday, March 28 (100 points to winner). Kentucky Derby 2020 Points Race Recaps  Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) Recap (3-14-20) – Winner: Field Pass ($9.60) Fancy Liquor set the pace and post time favorite Invader was in chase mode. Those two battled for quite some time, and Invader finally got a short advantage. It would not last. Field Pass stalked outside and

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Santa Anita Horses To Watch March 24, 2020

DUPLICITY (March 20): Three year old colt for John Sadler made his debut in Friday’s third, a maiden special weight at five and a half on the turf for 3 and up. Off at 15/1 under Victor Espinoza, he made the running right from the start, and battled for the lead from the inside through quick fractions of 21.94 and 45.17 on a course labeled good. He put the other speed away at the top of the lane but couldn’t hold off a perfect tripper, who just nailed him very late right on the wire. It was a superb effort for this son of the good stallion Into Mischief and he will be much tighter for start #2. He is bred to run long as well so Sadler has plenty of options for a colt, who looks like he could be very good down the road. Follow. ROUTE SIX SIX

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