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UPDATE - FROM THE BLOOD-HORSE
ERIE TRACK TO OFFER HUGE PURSES - only 25 day meeting for 2007

by Tom LaMarra
Date Posted: July 17, 2007
Last Updated: July 17, 2007

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In terms of money, it will be Del Mar, Keeneland, and Saratoga in northwestern Pennsylvania when Presque Isle Downs offers an inaugural 25-night meet with an average of $500,000 per program in purses.

Management and horsemen are putting the finishing touches on the condition book and stakes schedule for the meet, which runs from Sept. 1-Sept. 29 near Erie. It’s projected that about $13 million--most of it revenue from slot machines that began operating earlier this year--will have to be paid out during the first live meet at Presque Isle by law.

The condition book will reflect base purses, but in reality the payouts will be 75% higher under a scheme devised by track owner MTR Gaming Group and the Pennsylvania Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. First place will earn 75% of the advertised purse, followed by second place at 45%, third place at 20%, four place at 15%, fifth place at 10%, sixth place at 5%, seventh place at 3%, and eighth place at 2%.

Thus, the lowest purse--$14,000 for $10,000 maiden claimers and $5,000 claimers that haven’t won in six months--is actually worth $24,500. A $40,000 maiden special weight event is worth $70,000. The highest overnight purse--$50,000 for an open allowance race--will be $87,500 under the supplement plan.

(For a $40,000 maiden race, the winner would get $30,000 and the second-place horse $18,000, for example.)

The stakes schedule, at about $1.7 million, includes the $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Master Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs Sept. 15. Officials said they hope the stakes serves as a potential prep for the new $1-million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in late October.

The Sept. 15 card will include the $175,000 Presque Isle Mile for 3-year-olds and up at one mile, and the $175,000 Karl Boyes Memorial Northwestern Pa. Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at 5 1/2 furlongs.

Presque Isle, where the racetrack is one mile in circumference, will be the first to use a Tapeta Footings surface for racing. The synthetic Tapeta surface developed by trainer Michael Dickinson also is being installed at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California.

“This has really been a joint effort with the horsemen,” said Rose Mary Williams, director of racing at Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort, which also is owned by MTR Gaming. “We’ve worked together well to make it a really good meet, and the synthetic surface will be a plus.”

Pennsylvania HBPA president Joe Santanna noted the purses for the first Presque Isle meet will be the highest in Pennsylvania racing history. “When I looked over the first condition book, I said, ‘This can’t be a racetrack in Pennsylvania,’ ” Santanna said.

The Erie area has been without live Thoroughbred racing since 1987, when Erie Downs held its last meet. The track, previously called Commodore Downs, which opened in 1973, catered to lower-level claiming horses.

For its final meet 20 years ago, Erie Downs offered 79 days of racing with an average purse of $1,500, according to the Racing Manual. The fifth-place finisher in a $5,000 claiming race will earn that much this year at Presque Isle.

Santanna said if gaming projections hold, Presque Isle should be able to offer about $300,000 a night over 100 programs in 2008. So the published purses in this year’s condition book reflect what purses should look like next year.

Presque Isle has received about 45 stall applications thus far, but that could change when the condition book is officially released. “I think you’ll find they’ll be coming in from all over the country,” Williams said.

Presque Isle will offer eight races per program on a Wednesday-through-Monday schedule with post time at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. On Sept. 21, Pennsylvania breeders will have their night at the races with six $90,000 stakes for state-breds.

courtesy The Blood-Horse

The draw for Sunday's $700,000 NORTHERN DANCER BREEDERS' CUP TURF will be held THURSDAY at a special media luncheon at Woodbine.
The showdown between SKY CONQUEROR and JAMBALAYA is expected to be renewed. The former beat the latter by a nose for 2nd place in the King Edward Breeders' Cup in their last start.
Both guys have won Grade 1 races this year.
Edgar Prado will be in to ride Sky Conqueror on Sunday. Javiar Castellano will stay on Jambalaya.
( The 2 best horses in Canada are ridden by non-Woodbine jockeys....that's different).

Horse of the Year ARRAVALE is expected to return to racing action in Sunday's Dance Smartly Stakes. The other stakes races on Sunday are the Bold Venture (Poly sprint) and the Ontario Matron (Poly route for mares).

In response to comments regarding Beyer Speed Figures in Canada and the U.S. - the Figures are done by one group of people who work for AndyBeyer, who developed the numbers. They are not higher in the United States than in Canada. The scale is the same. That is the point of the Beyers. Currently, 90 and 92 Beyer Figures would not put the Canadian 3yo's close to the American set. But that does not mean they cannot improve.

The THOROUGHBLOG poll has been changed this week (Alezzandro was a lot of people's pick in the Prince of Wales, thanks for voting). For those attempting to send Poll suggestions, the requests are coming to me without having been completed. Please check the form before you send it in.

CORRECTION - MIKE FOX was 4th in the Prince of Wales, not 5th as I wrote yesterday. THOROUGHBLOG regrets the error.

TRIO OF GOOD ONT.-BREDS GO TOMORROW

There is another good rivalry going on in the Ontario-sired ranks with LEGAL MOVE (Bold Executive), DANCER'S BAJAN and FUDGETHEBOTTOMLINE heading up a little field in the Deputy Minister Stakes tomorrow night. The purse is $125,000.
Legal Move, from the Woodford Racing team and trainer Mark Casse, has won 2 stakes in 2 starts this year. He's banked $384,000 and was a $38,074 (US) yearling purchase.
He just held on to beat Dancer's Bajan last time in the Achievement but that was at 6 furlongs and now 7 furlongs is going to work in favour of Bajan.
The latter has not won this year but has run hard. He was a $29,421 yearling (by Trajectory) and he's won $294,900.
And 'Fudgie', a $23,536 yearling purchase from Gail Wood by Laurie Silvera, was 3rd in the Bold Ruckus to Legal Moved but won his latest in allowance company. He's won $175,108.

BEAR BULLISH

Danny Dion continues to be a big player in the North American thoroughbred markets as he bought the sale topper at Fasig-Tipton yesterday – a Lion Heart colt out of the Deputy Minister mare Aim for the Moon.

“It’s the most I have ever paid for a yearling,” said Dion, who operates Bear Stables in Canada, racing in Alberta and Woodbine. His Bear Now won the Grade 2 Selene Stakes earlier this season.

The ‘Bear’ bought 5 yearlings for $837,000 at the sale.

Offspring of Lion Heart took the top 3 spots by prices.

At $250,000, the fourth highest, was a colt by Canadian champion Perfect Soul out of Cherie by Afleet. The Kentucky-bred colt was bought by Racing Partnership Canada.

MONKEY BUSINE$$

There are a couple of pictures of THE GREEN MONKEY training recently. He’s getting ready for his first race….(in case you don’t know, the colt was a $16 million 2yo purchase last year. Yours truly was there to see it, quite something)…

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/sports/othersports/13racing.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

From VANCOUVER SUN...

Sun sets on Hastings stakes race after barn door slams shut on Monashee

Dennis Feser, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, July 14, 2007

They know what to do at Hastings Racecourse about the heat wave. They cancelled The Sun on Sunday.

Due to a lack of enthusiasm in facing Monashee, a winner of seven straight stakes races, management decided to cancel Sunday's $50,000 Vancouver Sun for fillies and mares. And instead of a three-horse field of fillies and mares, seven will run in an allowance race, the conditions of which exclude Canmor Farms' Monashee.

Although Monashee's connections had accepted the assigned high-weight of 130 pounds, only two, 2006 B.C. Oaks champion Real Candy and Starlite Strike were prepared to compete.

"I went around to every barn and they all told me to go away," said Raj Mutti, Hastings director of operations. "They said they wouldn't run against her if she carried 140 pounds. I feel bad for [owner Ole Nielsen and trainer Tracy McCarthy], but it is something that is up to the other owners and horsemen."

The last time Hastings cancelled a stakes race, the City of Vancouver in 2005 when only three were nominated, Canmor Farms was forced to send Notis Otis to Alberta. The two-year-old champion in B.C. in 2004, Notis Otis contracted a life-threatening virus and was knocked out for the remainder of the year.

The hope was that Monashee's connections would not accept 130 pounds and consider shipping her to Edmonton, Seattle or Toronto. But McCarthy said Friday while leaving is an option for later in the year, they are determined to keep the five-year-old daughter of Wolf Power at home.

"We can't do anything about this, but we want to stay here and run," she said. "I don't tell anyone how to train their horses and I don't like being told how to train mine. It's one of those unfortunate things, but she's just so much the best. We will ultimately go somewhere, but we don't want to go to Toronto now because of the heat."

Monashee carried 125 pounds in winning the Supernaturel by 5 1/2 lengths. Jockey Dave Wilson was a passenger and did not touch her with the whip. Had all 10 that nominated for The Sun chosen to start, Monashee would have given away 16 to 21 pounds.

So what happens next, when Monashee is accorded 130 pounds for the B.C. Cup Distaff on Aug. 6? If original conditions of B.C. Cup races (for B.C.-breds only) were not changed in 2006 to include B.C.-owned runners, that would not be a problem. As a Kentucky-bred, Monashee would not have been eligible.

"We will have to wait and see," said McCarthy. "Maybe after this allowance race they'll be happier to run against her. Even running second in a 50-grander and being stakes-placed to her has to be better than winning an allowance."