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.
TTA ENDORSES SUREBET RACING NEWS AS ORGANIZATION’S OFFICIAL PUBLICATION
The Texas Thoroughbred Association has reached an agreement to endorse SureBet Racing News as the organization’s official publication, at least for the period of time that TTA cannot publish its award-winning Texas Thoroughbred magazine. SureBet magazine is a monthly publication with a distribution of 5,000 throughout the Southwest.
Beginning with the March issue, SureBet Racing News will devote a 9-page quarterly section to TTA. The section will cover TTA-sponsored races and other special events, race recaps, race nomination forms, other news related to the Texas Thoroughbred industry, and an executive director’s letter. All TTA members will receive the monthly magazine as a part of the membership package. TTA members having email addresses on file will also continue to receive the monthly TTA Express online.
SureBet Racing News, founded in 2007, added a sister company with the creation of the online racing webcast of In the Gate at www.inthegate.net in 2009, and its most recent live stream racing coverage was devoted to last Saturday night’s renewal of the John B. Connally Turf Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park. Major Texas championship racing days are proposed to be part of future live streams.
ACTING ZIPPY STEALS CONNALLY TURF ’CAP (G3) FOR FIRST GRADED STAKES WIN
Acting Zippy wired the 1 1/8-mile $197,000 John B. Connally Turf Handicap (G3) last Saturday night at Sam Houston for his first graded stakes victory. Co-owned by William Bennett and Carl Bowling, and trained by Bennett, Acting Zippy led throughout posting moderate fractions under Robby Albarado to finish in 1:52 1/5 a neck ahead of Orientate Express with Baltimore Bob another length back in third.
Love To Tell won the $50,000 Jersey Lilly Stakes, the other stakes race on the Connally card, over even-money favorite Pleasantly Blessed by 2 ¾ lengths to give trainer J.R. Caldwell the first added-money win of his career. Final Refrain ran third. Both Love To Tell and Acting Zippy were 5-1 offerings.
UNCLE ROSE VOTED 2009 CHAMPION TEXAS-BRED CLAIMER IN ONLINE POLL
Uncle Rose, a 5-time winner with three seconds and three thirds in 15 starts in 2009 for earnings of $35,675, has been voted the 2009 Texas-bred Champion Claimer in an online poll on the TTA website, www.texsthoroughbred.com, in which there were more than 300 individual participants. Owned and trained by Danny Pish, Uncle Rose was bred by Joe Carothers. The gelded son of Uncle Abbie—Waco Roses, by Waco Connection, just turned six and now boasts a record of 14 wins, three seconds and eight thirds in 40 starts after a 2010 debut win for $7,500 to boost his career earnings into six figures at $102,348.
OAKLAWN BOOSTS APPLE BLOSSOM TO $5 MILLION TO LURE RACHEL V. ZENYATTA
Oaklawn Park is ready to put up $5,000,000 to bring Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta together in the track’s Apple Blossom on April 3. Longtime track president Charles Cella made the announcement last Thursday. Currently shown on the Oaklawn Park website as a $500,000 handicap at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares four years old and older, the traditional stakes will be offered as an invitational at 1 1/8 miles with the starters carrying 123 pounds if Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta both come. If only one runs, the purse value reverts to $500,000. But what about the distance, then, and will it be a handicap or not?
Much as we want to see the match-up, it looks increasing likely to take place later than April 3. The wintry rainy weather in New Orleans has compromised Rachel’s workout schedule, and she has only one recorded work to date. Her connections are running out of time to find a suitable prep race before the Apple Blossom. I am sure that they would like to have one for Rachel to be at her best rather than ask her to fire her best effort at 1 1/8 miles first time out as a 4-year-old versus Zenyatta.
Fast furlongs...Six of every 10 Kentucky voters favor the legalization of slot machines at the state’s tracks according to a poll of 617 registered voters conducted in the last days of January...Revenue generated from slot machine play in Pennsylvania jumped 39 percent last month compared with January 2009 with the new Parx Casino at Philadelphia Park producing the biggest jump in revenue for any one location...New York Governor David Paterson has announced the selection of Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) as the winning bidder to operate slot machines at Aqueduct, but the lack of transparency in the selection process is the subject of scathing editorials in major New York dailies...New Jersey is in a dither over what to do about the money-losing New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, operator of Meadowlands Racetrack, Monmouth Park, Giants Stadium and an indoor sports and concert facility...Harrah’s Entertainment, owner of 50 casino properties including one of the two greyhound tracks in Iowa, is pushing legislation to drop the statutory mandate for live racing programs in exchange for paying $70 million over the next seven years in equal $10 million installments...The Texas Horsemen’s Partnership has posted board election results for the Texas Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association with Kathy Stephens Arnold and Dr. Richard Weilburg elected as owner representatives succeeding Larry Christopher and Don Weeks, with Junior Martinez re-elected as one of the three trainers on the board....A Kentucky legislator has filed a bill calling for a half-cent tax on bets made through account-wagering sites by Kentucky residents...Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s homebred Kera’s Kitten, winner of Retama Park’s $100,000 M2Technology Stakes last fall, took a front-running step forward on the Kentucky Derby trail last Saturday by winning Turfway Park’s WEBN Stakes...Equibase News Service reports that Thoroughbred racing’s economic indicators went south in January with wagering off 12%, purses down 10% and an 8% decline in the number of race days in comparison with January 2009...TTA member Jeffrey Kass, a retired Houston physician, was the subject of a feature article in the Houston Chronicle for his prowess in making judicious claims, the most recent being Club Tejano, a Sam Houston winner last Saturday...Our deepest sympathies are extended to Lynda Kidd, on the passing of her husband, former TTA director and 1994 Harkins Award winner Curtis Kidd, DVM, and to Rhonda Curtis, on the sudden loss of her spouse, Hal, a well known Texas horseman.