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2011 Kentucky Cup review

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Meeting my favorite jockey, Patrick Valenzuela.

I had high expectations for the Kentucky Cup at Turfway Park and I was not disappointed.

My day started a little late as I have been under the weather, but I got to the track around 3:30 pm. There was a lot of traffic on I-75 which made the drive a bit longer, but I got there in one piece. That is in spite of the fact that I’m missing the passenger side mirror on my car due to a recent “slip up” behind the wheel. Hey, I made it three years without doing any damage in a car. I’ll say thats a small victory in and of itself.

Anyway, I arrived to the track to learn that my top pick in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies, Charming Vixen, had got the job done. She paid $8.20 to win for jockey Calvin Borel and trainer Tom Amoss. Not a bad way to start the day, right?

After that I watched the beautiful gray colt Hansen stride home to easily take the Kentucky Cup Juvenile by just over 13 lengths for trainer Mike Maker and jockey Victor Lebron. Visually, it couldn’t have been any more of an impressive win than it was. I don’t say this often so early in the season, but I fully expect to see Hansen become a top Kentucky Derby contender.

The next race, the Kentucky Cup Sprint, was my favorite of the day. Back in 2008 I got to stand in the paddock with TVG’s Nick Hines as he saddled Salute The Sarge and gave instructions to Corey Lanerie. That was pretty damn cool for me at the time as I had never been in the paddock for a stakes race. Nick, if you’re reading, thanks again!

This year’s edition of the Sprint was my best play of the day. If you read my preview for the days races then you know I liked Matthewsburg a lot. He finished behind a freak called Poseidon’s Warrior at Penn National last out and I expected him to get plenty of pace to chase in his move to a synthetic surface. I ended up being right and was rewarded with a $20 Win/Place bet on a horse that returned $20.60 and $9.60, respectively.

 A few people asked me who I was betting in the Sprint and one of them came up and high fived me after the race and showed me a $15 Win/Place/Show bet on the horse. That’s a good feeling. I usually hate telling people in person who I like because I feel bad when they lose, but the times they come through creates a nice feeling.

After the Sprint I had a chance to catch up with my friend and ESPN writer Claire Novak. We chatted about the races and I noted that La Gran Bailadora looked the best of all on the track. I knew she loved the surface and had a big shot.

Despite that, I went another direction. It ended up being a big mistake as La Gran Bailadora gunned them all down in the stretch to cap a 5 win day for trainer Mike Maker.

 That’s a Turfway Park record.

The big race of the day brought back memories of 2007 when I watched Hard Spun and Street Sense compete in the Kentucky Cup Classic. My pick was Strike Impact. He faded after battling with eventual winner and 18-1 shot Future Prospect. It was cool to see that one win for the eternally grateful and joyous owner/trainer Dodson Skaggs. He nursed the gelding back to health after he was forced to miss a long stint of racing. Hopefully he can maintain his winning ways. General Quarters finished second.

After the races I got a chance to catch up with my all time favorite jockey, Patrick Valenzeula. We chatted for all of 10 seconds and I got a picture taken. I was like a little kid and it was something that really made me happy. Minus the goofy look on my face, it capped a great day of racing at Turfway Park.

Thanks again to Win Star for allowing my favorite day of racing to return. See you at Keeneland in a few weeks!

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2011 Kentucky Cup Preview

September 23, 2011 By 1 Comment

The Kentucky Cup day of racing from Turfway Park is one of my favorite days on the calender. I was very sad to learn that it wouldn’t run last year, but thanks to WinStar, it’s back for 2011. Let’s take a brief look at the races.

Tiznow Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies

This one mile race features Grade 3 Debutante winner Flashy Lassie. The $4k auction purchase was last seen finishing second in a minor stakes race at Mountaineer. We can forgive that poor showing because she had a bad start. Regular pilot Kent Desormeaux will get back on after Rafael Bejarano rode her last out.

The maiden Charming Vixen is my top pick. She’s showed some talent in three races and projects to appreciate this surface and the extra distance. Calvin Borel is listed to ride which should give her an advantage.

Bluegrass Cat Kentucky Cup Juvenile

Hansen is favored in this race for trainer Mike Maker after he crushed the competition to win his debut by just over 12 lengths. It’s hard to see someone beating him, but Space Traveler for Todd Pletcher has to be the prime suspect. The $200k auction purchase is bred to go long and is a relatively unknown commodity with two races under his belt. Having Pletcher as his trainer doesn’t hurt things.

Speightstown Kentucky Cup Sprint

This three-year-old sprint race is headlined by WinStar’s Cal Nation. They had high hopes for the colt after an impressive maiden win at Gulfstream this year, but he hasn’t progressed as quickly as I’m sure they would have liked. That’s fine though as he is slowly coming along and could be ready to post his best effort to date. His price will likely be prohibitive which is why I’m going to look elsewhere.

My pick for the race is Matthewsburg. The Mike Maker trained colt has a win over the track and is exiting a second place finish in a $100k stakes race at Penn National. The winner of that race, Poseidon Warrior, is one fast freak. If the pace gets too fast you can count on Victor Lebron to pick up the pieces.

Distorted Humor Kentucky Cup Distaff

This is a pretty cool race. The first three finishers will get a free season to a WinStar sire. That’s quite an incentive. My selection is Ailalea for Todd Pletcher. She should like getting back to two turns. Despite being without a win in route races, she has performed strongly in them. This could be her day.

Winstar Kentucky Cup Classic

Baryshnikov figures to get most of the action after a third place effort in the Bernard Baruch last out. The winner of that event, Turallure, returned to take the Woodbine Mile. Baryshnikov is in great form and should be tough.

I’m going with Strike Impact as my selection. The hard knocking gelding is doing great as he exits a minor stakes event at Mountaineer. Before that he was third in the Grade 3 Firecracker at Churchill Downs. He should be close to the pace for trainer Pat Dupay. Calvin Borel is listed to ride.

Who do you like in the Kentucky Cup races from Turfway Park? If you want to play the races online consider checking out our Horse Betting page. The Horse Racing Games page is worth a look too.

Best of luck!

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Handle rises at Turfway and Gulfstream

April 5, 2011 By 1 Comment

While wagering has declined by 8.5% nationally, Turfway Park is experiencing unexpected growth. The Florence, KY track saw on track handle grow by 13.5% and simulcast handle rose by 18%. In total the all sources handle for this year was $95,013,790 up by 3.3% from the previous year.

This is great news for my local track. Sadly, they recently had to scrap the Kentucky Cup races, but if people continue to partake in wagering on races at Turfway they may come back.

Friday and Saturday night racing has been the driving factor behind this rise in handle. I can say from personal experience that the track is flooded with people on these nights. This means not only more concession sales and handle, but it raises public awareness about horse racing.

Turfway Park is popular with people of all ages on Friday and Saturday night. On Friday nights beer and hot dogs are only $1. It is little promotions like this that will help get people to the track. Once they are there they will inevitably bet on the races. Most people are working during the day so it only makes sense to move the races to when the mass majority of people are able to actively participate in betting horses.

Things are also going well at Gulfstream Park where they handled $33.6 million over the weekend shattering last years two day Florida Derby weekend handle of $19.7 million. This was likely the result of splitting up the races by gender and having two marquee days rather than a single one.

I played Gulfstream almost exclusively over the weekend and I salute them for putting together two excellent cards capped by an exciting Florida Derby. I only wish that Julien Leparoux had held on in the last race of the day on Sunday. It would have been a $9,000 score for me as I was cashing the Pick 5 to his horse. The Pick 5 is a great weager that I have only recently started playing. I look forward to hitting it very soon.

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Synthetic Tracks reviewed by Bill Finley for TDN Magazine

January 27, 2010 By 3 Comments

While browsing the news today I came across a piece by Bill Finley for TDN Magazine. It is titled “Ground Control: The (REAL) Truth about Synthetic Tracks”. Finley is a strong proponent of synthetic surfaces and he uses the article as a platform to dispel rumors about the surfaces. He makes good use of statistical figures and does a good job of reasoning that the tracks have saved the lives of horses. I can agree with Finley; to an extent.

What is good for me may not necessarily be good for you. Horses are much safer competing on Poly Track in a very cold place like Turfway Park. This may or may not be true for the same horses at Santa Anita, Keeneland, or Del Mar. It must be considered that the cold weather in Florence, KY makes dirt at Turfway Park less safe. Adding Poly Track there made perfect sense. People quickly jumped to conclusions after seeing a decline in injuries and fatalities at Turfway. I’ve listed below a few that I have problems with.

  • Richard Shapiro acted hastily and without enough data and evidence when he mandated that all California tracks install a synthetic surface. I believe his heart was in the right place, but from a logical sense these tracks shouldn’t have been forced on California until more data was available.
  • Tracks that quickly decided to install synthetic surfaces did not consider variables such as the cold weather at Turfway Park, and the fact that they run mostly cheap horses there. I’m not a veterinarian or a trainer, but I would think that cheap horses are more susceptible to injury in the first place.

I plan on going into this subject further when I have more time, but for now I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Click here to read Bill Finley’s article.

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