EYE ON LIVE

Good news for horsemen: Purses up across the board
Manitoba Derby $100,000; most stakes $35,000; daily purses up, too

Now worth $100,000

It’s become more profitable to race at Assiniboia Downs this season. Purses at every level have been increased: At the very bottom, the purse for $1,500 claimers who haven’t won in the last six months increases to $8,500 from $7,600. At the very top, the Manitoba Derby is now $100,000 compared to $75,000 in previous years.

All other stakes races are now $35,000 except for overnight events which will be $20,000 compared to the previous $18,000. See all the increases here. What message are the increases designed to send? Said CEO Darren Dunn: “Horsemen were patient and supportive through a challenging season last year, forcing them to sacrifice a number of racing opportunities. We're now in a position to return that support with these adjustments.”

Live racing begins three weeks from Monday at 7:30 p.m. See schedule here.

SIMULCAST RACING

Whew! Eleven fresh new race meets are about to begin
Remember, April is "I never play that track" challenge month

Arlington Park’s farewell meet begins next Friday at 2:05 p.m.

Starting today and continuing almost daily until next Friday, a whole slew of fresh new thoroughbred meets fire out of the gate--11 in all.

• TODAY: Pimlico in Maryland begins at 11:40 a.m. and Belmont in New York begins at 12:15 p.m.
• SATURDAY: Churchill in Kentucky begins at 5 p.m.
• SUNDAY: Mountaineer in West Virginia begins at 6 p.m.
• MONDAY : Thistledown in Ohio begins at 11:50 a.m.
• MONDAY: Finger Lakes in New York State begins at 12:10 p.m.
• TUESDAY: Fairmount Park in Illinois begins at 1:00 p.m.
• WEDNESDAY: Evangeline in Louisiana begins at 5:50
• THURSDAY: Belterra Park in Ohio begins at 11:35 a.m.
• FRIDAY: Arlington Park In Chicago (farewell meet) begins at 2:05 p.m.
• FRIDAY: Prairie Meadows in Iowa begins at 4:00 p.m.

Do you have a favourite(s) among them? Even if you don’t, remember April is “I never play that track” challenge month; play a track or tracks you don’t normally play. Who knows? You may discover an aspect of the track you like.

STAKES THRILLER OF THE WEEK

New bully in maresville
Letruska puts away Monomoy Girl in Apple Blossom thriller

The race that had the Race Book buzzing

It was billed as the headline race of the weekend--and it lived up to the hype. The mighty Monomoy Girl, the winner of 14 of 16 lifetime races including last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, dueled her 3-5 heart out in the $1 million Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn Park Saturday afternoon but she couldn’t put away 3-1 Letruska.

Who? Yup, the 5-year-old Letruska, a Mexican champion before coming to the U.S., is the new bully on the block. And Swiss Skydiver? The filly who beat Authentic in last year’s Preakness Stakes never really got untracked and she finished third. I wouldn’t concede the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to Letruska--yet.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

$64 TAKES DOWN $423,000 JACKPOT AT SANTA ANITA: It was a lucky day Sunday for a bettor at Los Alamitos Race Course in southern California who bet $64.80 on Santa Anita’s 20-cent Jackpot pick-6, resulting in the player collecting the $423,202 pool because the player had the lone winning ticket. A $30 horse who cut back to a sprint race after showing early speed in a route race anchored the winning ticket.

Horses get a huge workout trying to keep their balance

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF BEING A HORSE -- FINALLY MEASURED: If horses could talk, they’d probably be thanking New Zealand researchers for creating a horse trailer designed to measure a horse’s body movements, up and down, back and forth and sideways. In 56 miles of travel down city and country roads lasting 58 minutes with two horses, the horses were jostled up and down a whopping 228 feet and 320 feet respectively and back and forth 745 feet and 797 feet.

All of which provides an insight into what Escape Clause went through when she was hauled all the way from Minnesota to New York City in June of 2019 on some freeways that were so bad that trainer Don Schnell’s truck lost two wheel covers. With this kind of research in hand, it’s hard not to conclude that that trip compromised her performance in a Grade 1 stakes at Belmont Park where she finished fourth.

Clarence Marzolf (1948-2021)

THIS HORSEMAN AIMED HIGH: Owner/breeder/trainer Clarence Marzolf, who died last week at 72, will be best remembered as an ASD horseman who aimed high with horses he bred--and succeeded. He raced at the Downs from the late 1970s to the early 2000’s with career highlights in 1989 with Lord Little Rock winning the Buffalo and Frank Arnason, in the mid-eighties with Frieda’s Blazer winning the J. W. Sifton, Norway House and Buffalo Stakes and posting runner-up finishes in other stakes. And then again in 1999 when, with just 13 starts that year, his horses won four stakes: Cache Lake won the Graduation, Frank Arnason and Osiris Plate and Black Knickers won the Chantilly. Away from racing for the past 15 years, he divided his time between Manitoba in the summer and B.C. in the winter.