Monday, October 31, 2016

New Rainbow 6 Carryover Starts at $2,884



The Gulfstream Park West meet will have a Rainbow 6 carryover of $2,884 when it resumes racing on Wednesday.

First post is 1:15 p.m. for an eight-race  card.  The Rainbow 6 is on the third through eighth races.

Gulfstream Park is holding the GP West meet at Calder, under a lease.

The start of a new carryover follows  the Sunday results when there were no tickets with the winners of all six races in the Rainbow 6.

So Gulfstream divided its non-jackpot payoff among  tickets with five winners. There were 37 such tickets, and each received $181.86 on the 20-cent per combination only bet.

Gulfstream pays out the full Rainbow 6 jackpot (all of the carryover plus 80 percent of the day’s bet) only on days when there is just one ticket with all six winners. The takeout is 20 percent on each day’s bet.

On Saturday, also the start of a new pool, there was just one Rainbow 6 winning ticket. It paid $10,308.68.

Thus, there was a new Rainbow 6 pool on Sunday.
Betting on the Rainbow 6 totaled $12,021.

Of that, Gulfstream took out 20 percent. It then divided 56 percent among tickets with the most winners (in this case five winners) and added 24 percent to the carryover.  That resulted in the carryover of $2,884 for Wednesday.
--Jim Freer


First Horses Arrive at Tampa Bay Downs

(Editor’s note—In a story early on Sunday morning, we reported that it was the day when Tampa Bay Downs would open its stables to horses for its 2016-2017 race meet.
In the news release below, the Tampa Bay Downs publicity office provides details on first-arriving trainer Mike Dini.)

From Tampa Bay Downs

Mike Dini doesn’t think being the first trainer on the grounds will give him a competitive advantage when the 2016-2017 Tampa Bay Downs meeting resumes on Nov. 26.

But by 8:30 a.m. Sunday, with his 12-horse shipment comfortable inside their stalls in Barn 19, Dini recognized the benefits of setting up shop as early as possible.

“The biggest thing this time of year when you ship a horse is the heat,” he said “On a long ship, it knocks some of them out.”

Dini’s contingent arrived after a 20-hour journey from Monmouth Park in New Jersey in two 52-foot vans (one from Aprile Horse Transportation, the other from Mitchell Carter Horse Transportation).

“We wanted to get in here before it got hot, or you can get one or two sick,” Dini said.

Mission, it appeared, accomplished, as each of the Dini-trained horses bounced down the ramp en route to their stalls amid 72-degree bliss.

“They’re all sort of winterizing a bit – they grew some hair, so we’ll try to clip as many as we can (Monday) and they’ll start being Florida horses,” Dini said. “But it’s still cool right now, the barn area here is peaceful and quiet and the air is a lot cleaner than it is in the city. It’s a good training environment.”

Dini is among the legion of conditioners who consider the Oldsmar dirt training surface one of the best to be found.

“It’s a good track to get horses fit and ready,” he said.
The first horse to step on the grounds was Munificent, an unraced 2-year-old filly owned by the Ballybrit Stable operation of Dini’s major client, Alan Lustig.

 “She’s not ready to run yet, but I think she is going to be a nice filly,” Dini said.

Munificent was followed down the ramp by Quick Release, a 3-year-old Ballybrit Stable-owned filly who finished third in the Miss Preakness Stakes (Grade 3) at Pimlico in May and second, beaten a nose, in the Coronation Cup at Saratoga on Aug. 1.

Another accomplished Dini-trained and Ballybrit-owned runner to make the journey to Oldsmar was 4-year-old colt Gallery, winner of the 2015 Manila Stakes at Belmont.

They will be joined later by Bird’s Eye View, a 2-year-old colt currently getting time off in Ocala after finishing third in both the With Anticipation (Grade 2) at Saratoga and the Dixiana Bourbon (Grade 3) at Keeneland.

“We have some good horses and I think we’ll have a good meet,” said Dini, whose biggest victory in a 20-plus-year training career came in 2007 in the Kennedy Road Stakes (Grade 3) at Woodbine with the gelding Connections.

Dini had 76 starts at Tampa Bay Downs in the 2015-2016 meet.  He had five winners, twelve second place finishers and seven third place finishers.

Tampa Bay Downs officials expect the stable area to be full when the 91st anniversary season resumes on Nov. 26. The track will open for training next week.

Tampa Bay Downs will simulcast the Breeders’ Cup races from Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday.
 

Sunday, October 30, 2016

A Look at the Late Pick 5

As we will note  in several minutes, Epic Drama at 3-2 won the GP West fifth race via  DQ to  start the Rainbow 6.

In the spirit of the mud/slop here is our mental bet on the Late Pick 5, based largely on records on off tracks:

6th  -   4   7  10   12
7th -- 2  5 8  9
8th  -- 8
9th --    3   8   12
10th  --  5   11

total --- $48 for 50 cent bet

 

Rainbow 6 Begins With a DQ

Duel at Dusk crossed the finish line a neck ahead of Epic Drama in Sunday's fifth race at the GP West meet.

But stewards reversed that order after they determined that Duel at Dusk, at 3-1, interfered with Epic Drama, at 3-2, in deep stretch.

The race was the start of the Rainbow 6, with a  new pool after two straight days with a single "take all" winner.

Bettors wagered $12,021 on the Rainbow 6.

The race was a $50,000 maiden claimer for 2-YO.
it was scheduled for 7 1/2 furlongs on turf, but run at seven furlongs on the muddy dirt track.

The winning time was 1:25.08.

Luca Panici rode Epic Drama for trainer Eddie Plesa Jr.  Nik Juarez rode Duel at Dusk for trainer Ralph Nicks.
--Jim Freer

Super Hi-5 Pays 2,845.50

Blazing Diamond, at 7-1, won the GP West second race and that set up a Super Hi-5 payoff of  $2,845.50 for the minimum  $1 bet.

The carryover coming in was $2,591.04.  Bettors added $7,252 to the pool.

The order of finish was 4-5-2-7-3.

Blazing Diamond led at every call and won in 1:05.78.

We'll be back before the sixth race with a  look at how speed has held  up and could hold up.

Super Hi-5 Carryover at GP West

The $2,591.04 Super Hi-5 carryover is now on the second race in the GP West meet at Calder where conditions are off turf and muddy.

The race, originally set for  dirt, is 5 1/2 furlongs for F&Ms at a $6,250 claiming price.
Playa  Zaragoza (3) has run well on off tracks and looks attractive at 19-1.

GP West Off Turf on Sunday

There will be no turf racing on Sunday at the   Gulfstream Park West meet, held at Calder in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Following overnight rain, the six races scheduled for turf have been moved to  the dirt track which is listed as muddy.

Those races are the  first, third, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth.

First post is 1:15 p.m. for the ten-race card.

We will have coverage during the afternoon on this blog. 


Horses to Start Arriving at Tampa Bay Downs



Tampa Bay Downs will open its stables to horses on the morning of Oct. 30, in preparation for its resumption of racing on Nov. 26.

Beginning Nov. 8, horses will be allowed to train on the Tampa Bay Downs track.

The Oldsmar, Fla., track has 1,460 stalls. Almost 1,400 are for horses that will race at the track during its 2016-2017 meet.

Tampa Bay Downs has a section in its stable area for horses that have been shipped in for the day to race. It also has about 50 stalls set aside for ponies that accompany thoroughbreds during post parades.

The stalls have all been allocated and the number of requests exceeded the available space, said Tampa Bay Downs vice president of marketing and publicity Margo Flynn.

Tampa Bay Downs is the winter and early spring home for numerous prominent trainers who during the remainder of the year have their horses stabled at tracks in Kentucky, Illinois, Pennsylvania and other northern states.

This will be the 91st season for Tampa Bay Downs. The regular portion of the meet will extend through May 7. Live racing will be primarily on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tampa Bay Downs is open daily  year-round for wagering on simulcasts from other tracks.

Tampa Bay Downs also has live racing each July 1, the first days of Florida fiscal years, and each June  30, the last day of Florida fiscal years.

By doing that, Tampa Bay Downs can be a year-round host track for simulcasts of thoroughbred races from track outside Florida.   A host track distributes those signals to other Florida pari-mutuels and receives part of the takeout on their handle from those races.

Tampa Bay Downs is coming off its 2015-2016 meet in which it averaged $4.2 million a day in all-sources handle on its races. That was an increase from an average of $4.1 million in 2014-015. 

Last season’s all-sources handle was Tampa Bay Downs’ best since its record $4.5 million in 2010-2011. All-sources handle is the total amount of money bet on a track’s races, both on track and off-track.

Tampa Bay Downs will have 24 stakes races in its upcoming meet with purses of almost $3 million—the largest in its history.

The centerpiece of the season will be the March 11 Festival Day card, with five stakes races. 

That day is headed by the $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby (Grade 2) at 1 1/16 miles on dirt for 3-year-olds.  It is a major prep for the Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) that will be run May 6 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.
 
During the upcoming week we will have the first in our series of preview stories on Tampa Bay Downs.
--Jim Freer

Saturday, October 29, 2016

GP West Having Strong Saturday Handle

The dreary skies at Calder  apparently are not scaring off simulcast and ADW bettors around the country.

We did not catch the total wagering for the second race at the GP West meet.

Here are totals for the other races so far:

First - $496,436

Third -- $468,294
Fourth -- $427,007

We estimate that the crowd is now about 250, not including horsemen and horsewomen.

We will be back this evening with a recap of the day at GP West.
--Jim Freer and Barry Unterbrink

Vinyardnina Rallies to Win Third at GP WEST

Vinyardnina took the lead 50 yards from the wire and held off late running Miss Visconti to win by a half length in Saturday's third race at  the Gulfstream Park West meet.

Vinyardnina won the 7 1/2 furlong turf  race in the relatively slow time of 1:33.87 on the Calder turf course listed as firm, amid intermitent rain. It  was an $8,000 claiming race with a $14,000 purse.

Vinyardnina was 3-1 and Miss Visconti was 6-1 in the nine-horse field.

The 8-6 exacta paid $70.40 for $2.

8  Vinyardnina     $8.60    $5.40  $4.00
6  Miss Visconti                $7.00  $4.00
4 Daddy's Pride                            $3.60