THIS WEEK IN MINNESOTA—-WEEK 3231
The 10th race feature this week will serve as a co-feature added money event this week with there also being a Graded Stakes on the Minnesota Downs card in the 15th race. This week’s overnite stakes is the 3rd running of The Apocryphal Stakes for 3 year old fillies who will go 1 mile on the Supertoy7 turf course chasing top prize from the $35,000 purse. The race is named for the mare APOCRYPHAL who was 21/54 at the track including 9 stakes wins of which 3 were Graded and over $900K in lifetime earnings.
Let’s take a look at today’s field:
1)NEXGEN(KY)—5/1—40oz sends this filly out of SKY MESA with a record of 7-2-1-2 and lifetime earnings of $41,188. She is out of the mare LUMAHAI BEACH who was 1/13 at the track with no stakes wins and has 4 foals on record of which 2 are winners and 1 is stakes placed. She runs for the Minnesota Division of the Doza stables and is the entry mate of the #2 horse who is currently the heavy morning line favorite. It should be noted that this trainer has been having some excellent success since moving his barns to Minnesota Downs and has captured 3 of the added money events here in the last 2 months. This 553rd divisional ranked filly has 1 dirt run at 2 years old and then came back this year on the turf. She broke her maiden in her 4th lifetime start and will be making her 2nd lifetime stakes start after finishing 3rd in a 4 horse field last time out in a 9.5 furlong overnite stakes in Georgia. Her lifetime best speed rating was an 85 she earned in an 11 furlong allowance 2 starts back. She displays speed and will be cutting back in distance for this race today. Stinson(11.5%) the dependable grinder of the local racing colony will be aboard this filly today.
2)THE CHIP’S CRAFTY(KY)—EVEN—dozaa sends this filly out of CRAFTY PROSPECTOR with a record of 14-5-2-5 and lifetime earnings of $101,805. She also runs for the Minnesota Downs division of the Doza Racing Stables and these two entry mates should be among the many frontrunners in this race today. This 1438th divisional ranked filly will be making her turf debut today after running exclusively on the dirt so far in her career. She does possess some turf pedigree so the switch may turn out to be a good move. While all of her wins have been in allowance races so far she does have 3 thirds in 4 lifetime stakes starts including one in her last race here on the dirt 3 weeks ago. Her top speed rating mark is 93 over 8.5 furlongs in Wyoming. She has won at this track before in her 2007 debut but it should be noted that the jockey for both of those runs has opted to rider her entrymate today. Smith(10.6%) will be in the irons for this one today.
3)THEO’S BRODEREK(CA)—8/1—theodore12 sends this filly out of BENCHMARK with a record of 13-1-1-2 and lifetime earnings of $26,460. This divisional unranked filly races for the current Minnesota Downs track manager Theo Stables Inc and has been sent to this stake race as a prep for her next start in a NW2L $2K claiming event. Her only win to date was a MSW score in her turf debut in her second lifetime start at 2. She has shown some nice closing efforts since but probably will prefer xtra ground to the 8 furlongs that will be run here today. Her lifetime best speedrating is 83 which she has run twice this year in 9 furlong turf allowance races. Her connections are hoping that all of the speed in this race will collapse in the stretch so that she can pick up the pieces. That task will be in the hand of her rider today—Green(8.8%).
4)MANATEE PLAYER(MD)—9/2—brstable sends this filly out of DANCE WITH RAVENS with a record of 5-2-2-0 and lifetime earnings of $84,480. She is out of the mare TORPEDO who was 2/19 at the track with no stakes wins and this is the only foal of record. She is shipping in from the Great Plains for this race today. This 478th divisional ranked filly won her MSW debut on the turf as a 2 year old. She has raced in 3 short field turf stakes sprints this year winning one and has posted 3 straight 84 speed ratings. She has has a knack of not hanging on to the lead in a few of her sprints so it remains to be seen whether she can handle the 8 furlong distance and there are others here who should be vying for the early lead. One major advangtage may be the expertise of her jockey Friar(20.3%) who has the reputation of being the money jockey at this track.
5)ICANTTHINKOFANAME(MO)—5/1—silks2912 sends this filly out of GALAXY NORTH STAR with a record of 11-2-2-2 and lifetime earnings of $46,989. This 309th divisional ranked filly has won both of her lifetime victories in turf allowances. She races for the Magoo Lodge Conglomorate of stables and was the winner of the recent name that filly contest in Vermont where she is currently based out of. The local fans still smarting over the rez challenge loss against Vermont recently have been giving this filly a rough going in the paddock. This will be the 5th straight stakes start for this filly who has earned a cheque in all of them albeit against short fields. She has displayed speed in her last 2 starts but has been unable to finish which has prompted a drop down in distance to 8 furlongs for this race today. Her lifetime best 87 speed rating was posted last time out in a 9 furlong overnite stakes in South Dakota. Merwitz(6.2%) gets the call in the irons today.
6)SEALED WITH A KRIS(KY)—6/1—coaltown sends this filly out of WAR CHANT with a record of 11-2-2-4 and lifetime earnings of $102,207. This 146th divisional ranked filly runs for the local Minnesota Outfit of Citation Stables one of the original stables based at the Downs. Both of this filly’s wins came early in her 2 year old season including a turf sprint overnite stakes event. Her top speed rating is an 82 which she earned in her 2 year old finale. She is the high earner in this field today but has yet to show her connections the potential they feel she has. She closed well in her last start so hopefully the xtra furlong in distance today will be helpfull. This closer will have plenty of speed to chase in this race and it can’t hurt that she has the sevices of the circuit’s top jockey in Bowen(21%).
NOTE #1 NEXGEN(KY), #2 THE CHIP’S CRAFTY, #3 THEO’S BRODERECK, #6 SEALED WITH A KRISS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE 200 CREDIT MINNESOTA DOWNS PURSE ENHANCEMENT FUND SPONSORED BY THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCY.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCY THIS WEEK
Bigrick took last weeks high speed rating contest with his horse SUNDAY RAMPAGE who posted a 105 speed rating which was worth 200 credits to his barns.
Randy took the Mountains of Money contest with a thrilling come from behind victory in the 16 week contest by picking one of his longshot who won and he took home the 500 credit to prize after passing Cothill in the standings in the last week of the contest.
The third leg of the 20 race Minnesota Sire Series 2 was run last week for GULCH sired horses and Fred’s Ridin’ Shotgun won the race over The Pict’s Minny Ho Ho in the 7.5 furlong turf sprint. Theo’s Stormina ETS still retains the series lead by a slim margin after finishing 5th in the third leg. The next race in the series will be in week 3245 where they will run 7.5 furlongs on the dirt course.
In last weeks 10th race feature—The S. Dance Handicap—Doza became the first recipient of the 200 credit Minnesota Downs Purse Suplement award when his horse PERFECT KARMA took the win as the race favorite.
It has been awhile since the Pick4 jackpot has been won at Minnesota and this weeks jackpot is now up to 3300 credits.
Longtime resident Chuckrock has resumed his weekly feature CHUCKROCK’S HORSE OF THE WEEK which was a local fan favorite until it was suspended last year and this weeks recipient of the award goes to:
NEXT ONE HERE(NZ)—Sandtrap x Explodent x Well Decorated.—
This 3 year old filly was claimed in week 3140 by Minnesota Downs resident WENLOCK with his Hullwayne stables and he has found the right touch with this one. She is on a 5 win race winning streak—4 for the new owner of which the last 2 starts have been in overnite stakes races. After having some dificulty in turf sprints the previous owner dropped her into a $5,000 claiming event and Wenlock promptly put in his claiming request and has found her mark by extending her to turf routes in the 8 furlong range. This is one of many stories in the sim that show that you can never tell what gems can be found in the claiming ranks. Congrats to you Wenlock and we wish you great success with this 3 year old filly. When asked for comments Wenlock responded ” This has to be one of my best recent claims by a long chalk. I know some people don’t bother with claimers much but I love finding the odd gem like this one.”
GOOD LUCK AND GOOD RACING
THEO