Have a comment or question about this week's update? Send an e-mail to davidh@texasthoroughbred.com. Read past updates in the Executive Director's Update archive.
$200,000 CONNALLY TURF HCP (G3), $50,000 JERSEY LILLY EACH DRAW 14 STARTERS
The old adage, “If you put up the money, they will come,” proved to be true at Sam Houston Race Park when the track’s only graded race, the $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Handicap (G3), and the $50,000 Jersey Lilly Stakes both drew full fields of 14 for their renewals this Saturday, January 30.
The Connally has attracted horses that made their last starts at five different tracks including Fair Grounds, Hollywood Park, Woodbine, Zia Park and Sam Houston. On paper, the 1 1/8-mile grass stakes appears wide open, and the possible impact of inclement, wintry weather could make the outcome even less predictable. Going Ballistic, racing in the Kindred Thoroughbred LLC interests of TTA director Mike Kindred and his wife Mary, lost the last Connally renewal by a diminishing head to Texas-bred Scrappy Roo when the race was last run in April 2008. Ablaze With Spirit, racing in the Heiligbrodt Racing Stable silks of TTA director Bill Heiligbrodt and his wife Corinne, is the lone Texas-bred in this year’s big field.
The Jersey Lilly attracted several shippers from Louisiana for the 1 1/16-mile turf test, which also drew three Texas-bred fillies and mares, including two homebreds---Carl Dodd’s Little Axe Leoleta and P and D Racing’s Issheademon, plus Stephen Baker’s recently claimed Slick Kitty, who posted a mild Texas Champions Day surprise in winning the San Jacinto Stakes last December on Houston turf.
The Connally drew the distinction of being Equibase Company’s featured race of the week. It will go as the 9th race with a 10:28pm CST post time. The Jersey Lilly is the 6th race, which has a 9:10pm CST post time. Both stakes will be shown via live streaming on the SureBet Racing News website, inthegate.net.
TTA BACKS SAM HOUSTON REQUEST TO ADD 4 MARCH MONDAY AFTERNOON CARDS
Sam Houston Race Park officials have submitted a request to the Texas Racing Commission to add four Monday afternoon racing programs in March and the Texas Thoroughbred Association has filed a letter in support of the request. The four additional dates are March 8, 15, 22 and 29th with a 1:20 pm post time.
TTA supported the request because two of the added days will make up for the cancelled programs of January 8 and 9th and the two other Mondays will give Texas horsemen additional racing opportunities. It is anticipated that the four Monday afternoon programs will have a very positive effect on handle on SHRP’s live export simulcast signal since there will be a limited number of outbound signals at that time, and none from tracks in the major racing centers.
Before making the request, it is understood that SHRP officials analyzed export simulcast handle from Turf Paradise, Sunland Park and some other tracks that race on Mondays when there are fewer signals available and determined that Monday afternoon racing was something Sam Houston should try.
In effect, this is an interesting experiment, and TTA, in its letter of support stated, “TTA awaits the results with interest and wants to commend SHRP officials for thinking out of the box and requesting something different than has been done in the past.”
Sam Houston’s request will be considered at the TRC’s next meeting on February 16 in Austin.
Fast furlongs...Congratulations to Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch, whose Texas-bred Taptam was sent out by Bret Calhoun to upset multiple stakes winner Euphony in last Saturday’s $75,000 Pippin Stakes in the Oaklawn Park slop...The Cherokee Nation broke ground on a new casino in Ramona, OK, between Bartlesville and Tulsa with an official opening expected this summer just about the time the Chickasaws will go before the Texas Racing Commission to change ownership of Lone Star Park...Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita host six Sunshine Million stakes restricted to horses bred in Florida and California to highlight Saturday’s racing schedule, but the $1.8 million cumulative value of this year’s Sunshine Million stakes is half of the gross value of past renewals...Fair Grounds is cutting overnight purses nine percent starting this Sunday and has reduced the value of several stakes because of a 31.6 percent drop in overall handle on the present meet compared with the 2008-9 season...The TrackNet Media Group and a group of tracks belonging to the MidAtlantic Cooperative finally reached an agreement on simulcast fees in time for last weekend’s races, which made signals available from Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita Park, Golden Gate Fields, Fair Grounds, Oaklawn Park and Laurel Park for the first time since early November...New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation has given its employees the required 60-day notice that it will cease operations as of the close of business on March 30...Georgia voters may get their opportunity to vote on a referendum to legalize pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing this fall if a House Resolution passes both the House and Senate with a two-thirds majority, but that is considered to be a longshot...Delaware legislators lost no time putting the state’s gaming options on a level playing field with Pennsylvania by passing a bill to legalize table games and Governor Jack Markell quickly signed the measure...The Illinois Racing Board capped interstate commission fees charged by account wagering companies to state tracks at five percent pursuant to a mandate from the state legislature despite retaliatory threats of Scott Daruty, representing TrackNet Media LLC, which controls the rights to simulcast signals and, like Arlington Park, is owned by Churchill Downs Inc...The post-position draw for the 2010 Kentucky Derby will revert to the standard “pill-pull” with a numbered pill shaken out of the pill box while a horse’s entry blank is picked randomly from the file of Derby race entry blanks, rather than the made-for-TV 2-tiered post-position draw in effect for several years...A Nebraska legislative committee has advanced a proposed constitutional amendment to allow simulcast betting on horse races at facilities approved in city and county locations that do not have live horse racing...The Kentucky Derby Museum, closed since August 4 due to flooding, will reopen April 18 after undergoing $5.5 million in renovations and the installation of all new exhibits except for one, a tribute to farriers...The last of the 51 permanent light poles have been put in place at Churchill Downs as a limited number of night programs becomes a permanent part of live race meets with four in the spring and two in the fall of 2010...If you are into fantasy contests, you may want to go to Bill Casner’s WinStar Farm website, www.winstarfarm.com, where you can enter a Fantasy Derby Contest, select a fantasy stable of 12 Derby nominees whose cumulative earnings from February 13 through April 17 could make you the winner of a trip to the 2010 Kentucky Derby and other prizes...The California Thoroughbred Trainers’ new board of directors came away from its first meeting last Wednesday and announced support to replace the state’s synthetic track surfaces “with newly designed and composed natural (dirt) surfaces”...Delaware Park has cut the value of its signature race, the 1 ¼-mile Delaware Handicap, from $1 million to $750,000 and added two $125,000 stakes to its 2010 schedule of 22 added money events...Vale of York and Lookin at Lucky ran one-two in a photo finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and they are the 126-pound co-highweighted 3-year-olds on The Jockey Club’s Experimental Handicap, which projects 2009 form to a hypothetical race at 1 1/16 miles on dirt...The first sustaining payment of $250 for 2-year-olds nominated to the 2010 TTA Sales Futurity must be post-marked by February 1 to maintain eligibility...February 1 is also the deadline for payment of the $125 stallion administration fee for accredited Texas stallions standing the 2010 season...Friday, February 5 is the deadline for making reservations for TTA’s awards dinner on Saturday, February 20, in the San Jacinto Suite at Sam Houston Race Park where the owners and breeders of the 2009 Texas-bred divisional champions will be honored.