For all the players that said it was to hard and the odds were impossible well they were wrong. Like I said the champion race program was just as much about handicapping as it was luck. To date this program has paid out in cash and points over 7500.00 and it is just a few months old !
The G1 $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park on Saturday will showcase six fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles. More Chocolate has a G2 win in the La Canada three races back and a second in the G1 Santa Margarita two races ago.
The $500,000 G1 Stephen Foster Handicap features a small field of six runners including the Breeders Cup Classic winner Fort Larned who ran an inexplicably bad race in the Oaklawn Handicap last out but if he bounces back is the one to beat.
The $1,000,000 Belmont Stakes for three year olds features the Derby winner Orb, and the Preakness winner Oxbow, who will go head to head in the test of champions. Orb simply didn't fire last out and is a strong contender if he can replicate his Derby form.
The $500,000 G1 Manhattan Handicap features a field of 10 going 1 1/4 miles on the Belmont inner turf. The strong favorite is Point of Entry who breaks from the rail. He has won six of his last seven races, including four Grade 1 races. He most recently defeated the Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom so he is going to be tough here.
The Championship Race Program was implemented to encourage stables to: 1) increase the size of their stables; 2) to actively keep their horses entered in tournaments; and 3) get more participation in General Tournaments. When we implemented this program, we did so with no further consideration required by the members.
The $500,000 Penn Mile on turf features a cast of eight three-year-olds. Noble Tune will break from the rail and just won the G2 American Turf at Churchill. He may vie for favoritism with Jack Milton who just won the G3 Translyvania.
The $250,000 Moutainview Handicap at Penn National features eight horses three-and-up going 1-1/8 miles on dirt. Rattlesnake Bridge most recently got third in the G3 Westchester and Macho Macho has lost three straight, his last win being in the G2 West Virginia Derby last August.
Another super addition to our Breeding Shed roster - Havre de Grace offers tremendous possibilities for the breeding of a superstar. In addition to winning the Woodward Stakes competing against a strong male field and becoming only the second female in history to win that prestigious race, she was also named Horse of the Year in 2011.
All the General Tournament modifications that we discussed two-and-a-half months ago are now fully functional. This includes a special class called ‘Non-Winners’ for horses that are not successful in General Tournaments. This also includes the mandatory rise in class for Grade 3 General Tournament winners with a birth speed rating of 137.5 or above.
The Grade 2, $200,000 Nassau Stakes will be run at Woodbine on Saturday. Solid Appeal won her maiden and an allowance on turf here last year and ended her campaign with a solid fourth in the Grade 2 Mrs.
First, I want to congratulate Gary Stevens for a fantastic ride in the Preakness. He put all the other jockeys to sleep and cruised to victory. With that said, it’s disappointing that we will go another year without a potential Triple Crown winner. If Orb had won the Preakness, there would have been some great momentum for the sport of horse racing over the next several weeks.
The 2013 running of the Preakness Stakes features a moderate size field of 9 that will be running 1-3/16 miles this Saturday at Pimlico. Headlining the field, of course, is Orb, the Kentucky Derby winner who will break from the rail and is clearly the one to beat until someone else proves otherwise.
The Grade 2, $300,000 Dixie Stakes at Pimlico on Saturday at 1-1/8 miles on grass has a very well balanced and competitive field featuring a large group of 13 runners. Wilcox Inn tops the field following his runner-up finish to Amira's Prince in the Grade 2 Mervin Muniz Handicap at Fair Grounds in his last start.
