Yesterday and today: April 2 racing highlights
Vim won an allowance at Laurel Park on March 20. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: EQUINE HERPESVIRUS CASE AT PARX
No Quid Pro Quo, a four-year-old Bellamy Road gelding trained by Michael Aro, became ill earlier this week and has now been determined to have equine herpesvirus (EHV-1), the Daily Racing Form reports.
EHV 1, a highly contagious disease, can lead to a variety of ailments, including respiratory disease and myeloencephalopathy, a degenerative condition affecting the brain and spinal cord.
The discovery has led to two barns — Aro’s Barn 30 and Barn 4, where a horse originally trained by Ronald Dandy, also in Barn 30, ended up after being claimed by Butch Reid — being quarantined. No horses from those barns will be allowed to train or race during the quarantine period, which typically lasts 21 days as long as no horses show symptoms of the disease in the interim period.
What’s more, no horses will be permitted to leave the grounds during the quarantine. That may keep Abiding Star, winner of the Private Terms at Laurel Park, from entering the April 9 Federico Tesio at Laurel, a Preakness “Win and You’re In” race. The Ned Allard trainee had been supplemented to the Triple Crown by owner Gilbert Campbell for $6,000 after his Private Terms win. Another Allard trainee likely to be affected by the ban is Always Sunshine, whom he had pointed to next week’s Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct.
Separately, Maryland Jockey Club management notified horsemen that no horses from Parx Racing would be allowed to enter any MJC facility. The ban lasts “until further notice.”
ALSO…
- Mary Eppler trainee Double Whammy and jockey Taylor Hole laid waste to a pretty solid field of second-level allowance runners in yesterday’s $45,000 Laurel Park feature. Claimed for just $5,000 on December 18, Double Whammy has now won two allowance races and finished second in two others for Eppler.
- We’llseeaboutthat had her four-race win streak snapped last night at Charles Town when she ran second to Queen of the Hill an allowance/optional claiming heat. She was claimed for $12,500 by trainer Kieron Magee out of the race.
- For the second straight race, Go Daddy Girl and Gwendolyn ran one-two in an allowance/optional claimer. Last night’s meeting, in which Guayana went off the 1.70-1 favorite but finished fourth, saw Go Daddy Girl take the lead after a half-mile and maintain a steady edge, winning by 1 1/2 lengths. Gwendolyn, in fourth after a half, moved up to second after three-quarters but could not close the gap on her rival. Running time for 1 mile 70 yards was 1:44.21.
LOOKING AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Interesting allowance test for Pennsylvania-breds this afternoon at Parx Racing in race five. Miss Avalon (2-1) gets the nod as morning line favorite for trainer John Servis after breaking her maiden last out over the strip, though that was back in December. Among the rivals she’ll have to contend with are Here’s the Call (7-2), who blitzed Penn National maidens by over five lengths in her last race back in January, and Little Miss Miss (5-1), trying to get back on track after her early promise fizzled.
- A couple of hard-knockers get favoritism in Penn National’s featured allowance heat (race 5), as Almighty Storm (2-1), Money Game (5-2), and Isabella Swift (7-2) have made 27, 28, and 54 starts, respectively. Those looking for lightly raced sort working through her conditions might turn to Black Mission Fig (8-1), though that runner has been fifth against similar in her last two.
- Two runners with strange records are favored in a $24,500, West Virginia-bred allowance tonight at Charles Town. Unbridled Ghost (2-1) has won just two of 17 career starts — but has been in the money in each of his last five, including a victory. And Late Caller (5-2) won at first asking, but has just a single victory in 21 subsequent starts. He’s been in the money four straight.
- Conditioner Michael Dickinson — the “mad genius” who conditioned Da Hoss to two Breeders’ Cup wins, one with a single prep off a two-year layoff — returns to the training game with his first starter in eight years in race nine at Laurel Park with Tide Is High (6-5). Check out today’s GQ Approach for full-card Laurel Park selections.
