Modest Revival for Suffolk Stakes
The Massachusetts Handicap and the James B. Moseley Breeders’ Cup may not be on Suffolk Downs’ 2005 schedule, but the rest of Suffolk’s 2005 open stakes schedule will be revived.
The track cancelled 10 $40,000 open stakes races in early April to help conserve the overnight purse account. In a meeting with the New England HBPA last Wednesday, Suffolk agreed to replace those races with an equal number of $25,000 stakes. Officials from the Breeders’ Cup offered to match the purses on four of those races, which means that Suffolk this year will run six $25,000 named races and four $50,000 stakes races, in addition to the 12 state-bred stakes already scheduled.
“The people at the Breeders Cup saw that we were forced to cut our stakes program to stabilize the overnight purse structure for the local horsemen and stepped up made us the offer,” said Suffolk COO Robert O’Malley. “This will give both the horsemen and the track the opportunity to still offer a respectable stakes program without heavily impacting our overnight purse structure. In addition, it will give our racing fans some nice races to look forward to.”
Racing secretary Jim Pambianchi is meeting with HBPA officials this week and is expected to publish the revised stakes schedule soon. [Many thanks to reader and fellow Suffolk fan Doug Beaton for the HBPA news link.]
Suffolk notes: Apprentice jockey Anne Sanguinetti earned her first win at Suffolk in race one on Monday, aboard Judith’s Trifle.
