– Keeneland opens its three-week spring meet today, and the TBA’s own Quinella Queen will be there. This meet will be the last with a dirt course, as the track plans to install Polytrack before the fall, which means it’s also your last chance to capitalize on Keeneland’s notorious speed bias. The opening weekend’s highlight race is Saturday’s Ashland, which will feature leading Kentucky Oaks favorite Balance, as well as Santa Ysabel winner Itty Bitty Pretty. The two are predicted to dead heat, at least by one source.
– Round Pond is out of the Apple Blossom, but that doesn’t mean Happy Ticket will get a free ride in the race.
– Brad Free suggests a way to revive Wild Fit’s career: “This is crazy, but she should run against colts April 29 in the one-turn, one-mile Derby Trial. A bold, reputation-salvaging move is just what the one-turn specialist needs, because she has nothing to lose other than a start six days later in the two-turn Kentucky Oaks.”
– “The Justice Department is conducting a civil investigation of the horse racing industry’s practice of interstate transmission of wagers, which the department considers to be illegal.”
– Mr. Sekiguchi, the $8 million colt, makes his second start in race five at Santa Anita on Saturday. The colt finished second by half a length in his February career debut.
Posted by JC in News on 04/07/2006 @ 9:00 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
After hours of contentious debate, the Massachusetts House dealt a devastating blow to the state’s racing industry on Wednesday evening, voting 100-55 to kill a bill allowing the installation of 2,000 slot machines at each of the state’s four racetracks.
“The Massachusetts House of Representatives is killing the industry,†said representative David Flynn. “We’re strangling the tracks.”
The debate on the bill, which was passed by the Senate last fall, lasted for nearly six hours, as several legislators on both sides of the issue addressed the chamber, including representative Dan Bosley, a longtime expanded gaming opponent, and representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein, whose district includes Suffolk Downs and Wonderland dog track. Bosley opened the debate by lambasting the claims that slots would either save jobs or bring in substantial revenue to the state, and said that if that the bill, “doesn’t bring back our money from Connecticut, if it doesn’t save the jobs it is purporting to save, we shouldn’t do it,” while Reinstein held up photos of Wonderland workers who could find themselves unemployed without slots. “This legislature cannot afford to throw away thousands of jobs and millions of dollars,” she said. “If you vote [against the bill], you are voting against local aid, you are voting against working class families.”
Before House speaker Sal DiMasi came out against the bill last Friday, slots supporters estimated that they had enough votes to pass the bill, although not enough to override a veto from governor Mitt Romney. Flynn, whose district includes the Raynham dog track, blamed DiMasi’s “arm-twisting” for the loss of support.
After the slots bill was rejected, the legislature voted 141-13 to renew the state’s simulcasting law through the end of the year. Three of the state’s racetracks, including Suffolk Downs, have been closed since last Saturday, when simulcasting legislation expired. Suffolk plans to reopen Friday afternoon for simulcasting.
More: Lowell Sun racing correspondent Paul Daley finds fault with the legislators and the track owners for the bill’s defeat. “Believe me, there’s enough blame to be shared by both sides.”
Posted by JC in State Issues on 04/05/2006 @ 8:45 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
– The Apple Blossom rematch between Round Pond and Happy Ticket, the pair who slugged it out in the Azeri Breeders’ Cup last month in the most exciting race at Oaklawn this year, may not happen. Trainer John Servis is unhappy with the weight assignments for the race and contemplating not running Round Pond. “I told Mr. Porter I’m not happy at all with the weights,” he said. “We’re discussing it and we’re going to have to decide.” Round Pond and Happy Ticket are the co-highweights at 119, while Star Parade, the next-highest weight, was given 117. Katrina at Athlone indulges in a little cynicism and wonders if Servis is not so much worried about weights, “but rather … unhappy with the way Round Pond is approaching the race. Her workout Sunday was below par …”
– With three weeks remaining in the Gulfstream meet, Todd Pletcher leads the trainer standings with 56 winners, 30 more than runner-up Bill Mott. Pletcher extended his lead considerably on Saturday, when he won five on the Florida Derby undercard, including the Skip Away Handicap with the magnificent Bandini.
– In Derby Watch: Why the five-week layoff won’t hurt Barbaro’s chances in the Derby.
Posted by JC in News on 04/04/2006 @ 11:00 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
