DAY 12
ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE 11,000
ON-TRACK WAGERING $826,038
OFF-TRACK WAGERING $3,830,061
TOTAL WAGERING $4,656,099
CLASSIX CARRYOVER None.
FIRST POST 1 p.m.
TELEVISION TVG (full card)
TODAY’S WAGERING MENU Win-placeshow, exacta, trifecta and superfecta wagering offered on all races. Daily double (races 1-2, 8-9). CLASSIX (races 3-8). Pick-3 (rolling begins with race 2). Pick-4 (races 2-5 races 6-9).
TODAY’S SIMULCASTING SCHEDULE 11:25 a.m. Tampa Bay, 11:30 a.m. Gulfstream Park, 11:30 a.m. Laurel Park, 11:45 a.m. Aqueduct, 12:00 p.m. Fair Grounds, 12:10 p.m. Turfway Park
SATURDAY’S STARS
Jockey Jon Court won two races, taking the first with Steel Guitar ($15) in the first, and holding on for a nose victory in the $100,000 Martha Washington Stakes with 2-5 favorite Take Charge Brandi ($2.80). … Two-year-old champion Take Charge Brandi, making her first start since winning the Grade I Starlet at Los Alamitos in Southern California six weeks ago, set the pace throughout the 1-mile Martha Washington and looked like an easy winner until Sarah Sis and jockey Julio Felix came charging up the inside at the wire. Felix, in fact, rode Sarah Sis another 1/16th of a mile, possibly misjudging the finish of the 1-mile race. Equibase chart caller Jeff Taylor described it: “rider continued to ride through the finish wire for an additional 16th.
FINAL FURLONG
Jon Court was the only jockey or trainer to win more than one race on Saturday’s nine-day card. … The $1 Classix was cashed in for the second time this season when there was one winning ticket worth $11,137.90 on Saturday. The Classix, which requires bettors to pick winners of races 3-8, had been building gradually for five racing days after it was his hit last Friday for $63,107.80. It had been building through the first seven days of the season. … David Mello, who finished second in the 2014 jockey standings with 35 victories, won his first race of the 2015 meet in his 53rd start when Terrific Trio ($6.60) won the third race by 7 ¼ lengths. … Six horses were claimed during the first five races Saturday before horsemen stuffed the claim box in the 6-furlong sixth race for $20,000-$25,000 claimers. Six of the 10 finishers changed barns, including the winner Captain Genius and the three horses who followed him to the finish line. … Trainer Ron Moquett told the Oaklawn Park media department Saturday that Smarty Jones Stakes winner Far Right will make his next start in the Grade III $300,000 Southwest Stakes on Feb. 16. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will again fly in from Southern California to ride the 3-year-old son of Notional, who scored a 1 ¾-length victory in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 19. Far Right breezed 5 furlongs in 1:02.20 just after the track opened for training Saturday morning, his first timed work since racing 12 days ago. … Ride On Curlin worked 7 furlongs in 1:29.6 Saturday morning in preparation for the $100,000 Essex Handicap on Feb. 14. Trainer Billy Gowan said Jon Court will have the mount on Ride On Curlin for the 1 1/16-mile Essex. Court guided Ride On Curlin, runner-up in last year’s Arkansas Derby and Preakness, to a head victory in his 4-year-old debut Jan. 15 at 6 furlongs. … A.P. Brannigan became the first horse to earn Oaklawn’s Lasix incentive bonus in Friday’s second race, a sprint for Arkansas-bred $12,500 maiden-claimers. Oaklawn announced last September that horses who win without the bleeder medication during the 2015 meeting would receive a 10-percent bonus to the winner’s share. A.P. Brannigan, trained by Kelly Von Hemel, earned an additional $1,080 from the original $18,000 purse, on top of the $10,800 to the winner, for his 2-length victory. There were five Lasix-free winners at the 2014 meet: Mufajaah (twice) for trainer Dan Peitz, All Call and Discipline for trainer Chris Richard and Almighty Storm for trainer Otto Draper. Bonus money paid for Lasix-free winners at the meeting comes from Oaklawn and is separate from the horsemen’s purse account. The total potential bonus supplement entering the scheduled 57-day season was $1.4 million. … Arkansas Derby candidate The Truth Or Else breezed a half-mile in :49.20 in preparation for his 3-year-old debut. Trainer Kenny McPeek said the Grade II $750,000 Rebel on March 14 is the first major target.