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.
THOROUGHBRED RACING SHIFTS TO LONE STAR PARK FOR APRIL 8-JULY 18 MEET
Live Thoroughbred racing moves from Sam Houston Race Park after this Saturday night’s card brings the 2009-10 winter-spring meet to an end and picks up at Lone Star Park for a 60-day run beginning Thursday, April 8, and running through Sunday, July 18.
The traditional opening day stakes, the $50,000 Premiere for older Texas-breds, will have its 14th renewal as the first race of the Lone Star season. Racing will be conducted on a Thursday through Sunday weekly schedule except for Memorial Day, May 31, when Lone Star offers an outstanding card making up Lone Star Million Day. The TTA Sales Futurity Finals are scheduled on Belmont Stakes Day, June 5, and the Stars of Texas Day program is set for Saturday, July 10. Post time on Thursday and Friday nights will be 6:35pm with Saturday and Sunday afternoon cards starting at 1:35pm except for July 3 and 4th when post time will be 5pm leading into spectacular fireworks shows each night after the races.
VALID EXPECTATIONS COLT IS $100,000 FASIG-TIPTON TEXAS 2YO SALES TOPPER
A Valid Expectations colt proved to be the sales topper at last Tuesday’s Fasig-Tipton Texas 2YO sale when Jerry Durant bid $100,000 for the Louisiana-bred colt who had zipped an eighth of a mile in 10 seconds during Sunday’s under tack show. Durant also acquired the fastest worker, A Wildcat Heir colt, for $80,000 after he had posted a 9.4-second clocking two days earlier. Bret Calhoun will train both colts.
Valid Expectations, the Lane’s End Texas stallion who is the perennial leading sire in Texas, had the top-priced Texas-bred sold when a filly out of stakes winner Fast Fingers brought $42,000. Bill Heiligbrodt signed the sales ticket in the name of South Bay Interests. Both of the Valid Expectations came from the Pike Racing consignment of Al Pike.
The overall sales results were very similar to the comparable 2009 auction. This year there were 192 2-year-olds through the ring and 139 sold for a cumulative $2,371,900 and an average of $17,064. In 2009, there were 207 offerings with 144 selling for a gross of $2,477,000 and an average of $17,201. The buybacks dropped from 30.4 percent in 2009 to 27.6 percent this year and the median climbed from $9,650 last year to $10,500 in 2010, an increase of 8.8 percent.
This year’s juvenile sale attracted the interests of Maggi Moss, whose large stable has become one of the leading owners in North America. Many prominent national and local trainers were active including Steve Asmussen, Bret Calhoun, Dallas Keen, Allen Milligan, Danny Pish, Larry Robideaux, Art Sherman, Bob Young and Hall Wiggins, who bought three of offerings for Dolphus Morrison, the breeder of Rachel Alexandra.
SAM HOUSTON OFFICIALS PLEASED WITH MONDAY AFTERNOON RACING RESULTS
Sam Houston Race Park officials are pleased with the results of their experiment with live racing on four March Monday afternoons. The track’s CFO, David Jackson, sent a memo summarizing the handle figures for live on-track wagering and handle on the simulcast export signal in comparison with averages for night racing on Thursday and twilight racing on Sunday evening. He commented, “We are pretty excited with the results. There is clearly a strong case to be made that we should do something like this again for the next meet (race on Friday and Saturday nights and Monday afternoon).”
Following are the comparisons: Live on-track handle averaged $50,000 on Thursdays, $45,500 on Sundays and $55,500 on Mondays; Simulcast export handle on the live racing averaged $1,000,000 on Thursdays, $900,000 on Sundays and $1,181,000 on Mondays.
The simulcast export handle this past Monday totaled $1,533,000, significantly higher than the other three Monday cards. The increased wagering on the Sam Houston product most likely was due to the fact that there was no competing signal from Fair Grounds where the meet closed the previous day.
Fast furlongs...The second leg of the three-part “Road to the Kentucky Derby” series of telecasts will air this Saturday afternoon on NBC Sports from 4 to 5pm CDT featuring two 1 1/8-mile $750,000 Grade 1 Triple Crown preps, the Wood Memorial from Aqueduct and the Santa Anita Derby, headed respectively by Eskendereya and Lookin at Lucky, generally regarded as the two leading 3-year-olds pointing to the 2010 Run for the Roses...Louisiana Downs has packaged most of its 30 stakes into five major racing days for the 2010 Thoroughbred meet starting on May 1 and running through September 26, one day after the renewal of the $500,000 Super Derby, the track’s showcase stakes...In November, Ohio voters will get to decide whether the state’s seven tracks will be approved to operate up to 2,500 slot machines following a successful petition drive to get the referendum on the ballot...Bills to legalize slots at Rockingham Park in Salem, NH, and Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, MD, have shown some movement in each state’s legislature, but for them to become law is a longshot...Keeneland is offering a 50-cent Pick 3 wager as part of its wagering menu for the spring meet that starts tomorrow...The Kentucky Breeders’ Incentive Fund will distribute $2 million less than the $18 million doled out in 2009 with the decline caused by a reduction in stud fees and less money generated by the six percent tax on them...Oaklawn Park has boosted purses for the second time during the current meet with each claiming race bumped $2,000 and each allowance and maiden special weight race raised $4,000...Parx Casino, the top-grossing casino in Pennsylvania, opened three months ago adjacent to Philadelphia Park and with business booming, a multiphase expansion is ready to be initiated to include a hotel, spa and showroom...Fifteen Love gave San Antonio businessman Jose Espinoza a good return on his $85,000 purchase earlier this winter by closing fast to capture Sam Houston’s $100,000 MAXXAM Gold Cup last Saturday night on the same card that found Bubbler dominating the Sam Houston Distaff to prove an easy 12-length victress...Congratulations to Bill and Cornne Heiligbrodt, whose Heiligbrodt Racing Stables led all owners in number of wins at the recent Fair Grounds meet...Martha, my wife, asked me to express her very appreciative thanks to the many well wishers whose cards, phone calls and verbal thoughts have helped her make a speedy recovery from recent surgery...The TTA office will be closed on Good Friday for an extended Easter weekend before reopening at 8am on Monday.