THIS WEEK IN MINNESOA—WEEK 3259
This weeks feature at Minnesota Downs racetrack is the 3rd running of The Il Ytela Challenge Stakes for 3 year old fillies who will be running 7 furlongs on the Supertoy7 Marshall Turf Course. This will be the 10th race on the 16 race card and will offer a purse of $40,000.
Let’s take a look at today’s field:
1)SHEMAKESMEBEGOOD(IRE)—9/2—mepere sends this filly out of THEATRICAL(IRE) with a record of 11-3-2-1 and lifetime earnings of $83,772. This 114th divisional ranked filly started her career on the dirt and in fact won her debut race on the dirt in her 2 year old season but was switched to the turf by her connections when she failed to improve after her 3 year old debut race. She immediatly took a restricted allowance race upon switching to the turf and has also won an overnite stakes race on the turf from 6 black type starts in her recent races. She posted her lifetime best 91 speed rating when taking that race 3 starts back. She races best when on the lead and still needs to prove that she can handle the 7 furlong distance. Apprentice jockey Unchey (100%) will be looking to make it 2/2 in his career aboard this filly today.
2)URKO’S TWISTED(IRE)—6/1—eliteteam1 sends this filly out of PERFECT SOUL(IRE) with a record of 13-5-3-1 and lifetime earnings of $255,940. She is out of the mare TWO FORTY FOURS who was 3/19 at the track, no stakes wins and who has 5 foals on record of which 4 are winners, 2 of them stakes winners. This 17th divisional ranked filly runs out of the Urko outfit located in the Benelux racing club. This filly put together a nice 5 race win streak last year in the middle of her 2 year old campaign which included 3 overnite stakes wins. She has been winless in her last 4 starts, all stakes races but is always close at the wire after running her usual pace stalking style. She posted her lifetime best 90 speed rating last time out in Northern California when trying to wire a field but tiring just before the wire and settled for 2nd place. She will be ridden by Bowen (19.8%) today who should be able to get the most out of this filly with his excellent riding abilities at this track.
3)HENNY’S CAPOTE(KY)—7/2—corza5 sends this filly out of HENNESSY with a record of 14-3-4-2 and lifetime earnings of $75,228. This 1808th divisional ranked filly runs for the Corza stables based in Queensland. She will be making her first run for her new connections who recently purchases this filly for $605,001 at the auction. A winner of 2 allowance races this year, all on the dirt with a lifetime best 93 speed rating posted in one of those wins in Argentina earlier this year. Her conncetions paid a steep price for this filly but must think that a surface change will produce exceptional results. This will be the stakes debut for this filly today. Klein(9.5%) will be the rider of this filly today who appears to usually run in the second pack a few length of the leaders and starts her move in the far turn.
4)MANATEE PLAYER(MD)—5/1—brstable sends this filly out of DANCE WITH RAVENS with a record of 6-3-2-0 and lifetime earnings of $105,480. She is out of the mare TORPEDO who was 2/19 at the track, no stakes wins and this is the only foal on record. This 138th divisional ranked filly was 1/2 in her 2 year old campaign and has 2 wins in 4 stakes starts this year. She posted her lifetime best 88 speed rating last time out in The Apocryphal Stakes right here in Minnesota 4 weeks ago where she wired a field in the 8 furlong race. She is a front running speedster and should be setting the pace today. We have been unable to find out why Friar, one of the top jockeys on the circuit will not be riding this filly again this week after winning last time out as he is on the grounds and has several mounts today. Jackson (7.7%) will have the task of riding this quick filly today.
5)PANDORITA(KY)—8/5—bellissimo sends this filly out of CAT THIEF with a record of 16-6-5-2 and lifetime earnings of $369,790. She is out of the mare PANDORA TOO who was 4/32 at the track, no stakes wins and who has 3 foals on record , all winners with one stake winner and another Graded placed. This 48th divisional ranked filly runs out of the Rafa stables that are based right here in the Minnesota Downs backstretch. It has been quite the year for this conditioner who also was the winner of The Bluegrass Derby earlier this year. This filly was no worse than 4th in her 2 year old campaign that included 3 wins and 4 second place finishes including a pair of overnite stakes victories. In her 3 year old campaign she has raced quite a bit on the dirt surface and has posted 2 wins on that surface including a stakes win. She raced in an 8 furlong turf stakes in New Jersey last time out posting a lifetime best 96 speed rating while wiring a horse field. She is another speed horse in this race today and will have to rated well by jockey Goodson (6.5%) as there are a few others who will be looking for the lead in this race as well.
6)HOWDY CLOUD(CA)—11/1—nudiebar sends this filly out of MINISTERS WILD CAT with a record of 15-3-2-1 and lifetime earnings of $168,355. She is out of the mare PAGE SPRINGS who was 1/11 at the track, no stakes wins and who has 3 foals on record, all winners with 1 Graded winner. This 214th divisional ranked filly started her career on the dirt and in fact took a Grade III race in her second lifetime start on that surface. She captured a second lifetime stake when switched to the turf last year but has had a real struggle since. She was recently purchased by her new connections for $1,121,132 in the auction and has run in her last 2 starts for the new owners. She has yet to show any real improvement so far this season on either surface and her lifetime best 81 speed rating falls short of others in this field today. Her best turf speed rating is a 79 which she has posted twice. Geddes (7.3%) will be looking for his 4th win of the season aboard this filly.
7)PURAMATI(MI)—7/1—szemere sends this filly out of PERFECT CIRCLE with a record of 6-1-1-2 and lifetime earnings of $22,861. This divisonal unranked filly runs for the unafilliated Kisber stables. This filly was unraced as a 2 year old and will be making her stakes debut in today’s race. This filly broke her maiden earlier this year for her only career win but her 93 speed rating posted in her last race, a 7 furlong open allowance has prompted her connections to try this stakes race today. She is another who appears to like to run on or near the front which should make for a speed race today. O’Hara (7%) will be the rider for this one today.
PLEASE NOTE THAT #5 PANDORITA(KY) IS ELLIGIBLE FOR THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCY 200 CREDIT BONUS SHOULD SHE WIN THIS RACE TODAY.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCY THIS WEEK
Well it has been quite the week here in Minnestoa after having the residence Message Board crash but all has been fixed up and the new board is back in business. Unfortunately all of the old posting were lost when the old board crashed. For any Minnesota Downs resident members please note that you will have to re-register on the new board and we have implemented an authorization code system in order to keep the spammers from attacking us.
Wenlock won the speed rating contest last week with UTOPIA PLANETIA who posted a huge 108 speed rating and that was worth 200 credits.
The Minnesota Downs Last Man Standing competition started last week and the first horse to be eliminated was Fabman’s Minnytross. It should be noted that the horse was immediately banished to the auction after that very disappointing effort.
The Minnesota Downs Pick 4 contest has not been won in quite some time now and the jackpot carryover is now 3500 credits.
GOOD LUCK AND GOOD RACING
THEO