This week’s 10th race feature at Minnesota Downs Racecourse is the 3rd running of The S. Dance Handicap Stakes for all horses 4 years old and up. Eight have entered and will be going 1 1\/8th miles on the Supertoy Turf Course in their bid to capture the winner’s share of the $50,000 purse. The past winners of this stakes race have been DEUX BLOON and FOREST AGENT.<\/P>
Let’s take a look at today’s field:<\/P>
1)SEEKING THE BRAVE—9\/2—<\/STRONG>burnin sends this 8 year old horse out of SEEKING THE GOLD with a record of 66-15-13-10 and lifetime earnings of $1,713,999. This 3,174th divisional ranked horse is\u00a0a veteran campaigner who has 6 stakes victories in 45 lifetime black type starts. He runs for the old hat veteran trainer Randy, a local horseman at Minnesota Downs and last year he supplied his connections with a huge surprise in winning the innaugural Minnesota Classic Stakes, a restricted race her at Minnesota with a whopping $1,000,000 purse.\u00a0His high speed rating of the year so far is two starts back where he posted a 102 on the dirt in finishing 4th in a Grade III event.\u00a0While ammassing 15 wins in 55 dirt races and 0 wins in 11 turf starts the rumor has it that Randy was smoking some of the grass from the Supertoy Turf Course prior to entering this one in the entry box for this race. But, with the hillbilly Randy as trainer and the Australian Flash Ritorto(9.8%) as the jockey it may just be a fans delite if these two crafty Minnesota veterans win here today.<\/P> 2)GADGET(IRE)—9\/2—<\/STRONG>tbrag sends this 4 year old colt out of GENEROUS(IRE) with a record of 18-6-6-2 and lifetime earnings of $138,048. This 172nd divisional ranked colt was unraced as a 2 year old and became a steady allowance horse at 3. He started his first ever stakes race in his 4 year old debut this year and has cashed a cheque in his 3 black type starts so far this year. He won his only stakes race a few starts back in a 10 furlong overnite stakes in Tennesssee. This colt is coming off his lifetime best 104 speed rating in his last start a restricted allowance race in Eastern Kentucky. He will be in the capable hands of Jockey Bowen(21.2%) who is the leading jockey of the meet so far and has been the winning jockey in all of the previous runnings of this Minnnesota stakes race so far.<\/P> 3)STRAWBERRY DANCER—10\/1—<\/STRONG>morn3333 sends this 5 year old horse out of A.P.DANCER with a record of 36-7-8-2 and lifetime earnings of $119,550. This 1033rd divisional ranked horse comes from a barn that is not known here at Minnesota and this horse will be making his debut start here at the Downs. He did win a stakes race in his 2 year old final race in 2004 and was a solid allowance runner at 3 years old. He had a tough luck campaign last year at 4 by going winless in 11 starts which prompted a switch to the dirt surface for his 2007 debut races. He was not able to win on the dirt but has woken up lately with 2 victories in his last 3 starts with both of those coming on the lawn in routes. His high speed rating of the season is a 98 which was attained in an 8 furlong allowance on the turf earlier this year. O’Hara (9.1%) gets the call for this horse in today’s race.<\/P> 4)THE TWO—9\/1—<\/STRONG>my babay sends this 5 year old horse out of ALBERT THE GREAT with a record of 23-6-2-4 and lifetime earnings of $134,352. This 1575th divisional ranked horse runs for the local Minnesota horseman know as The Fabulous Fred from the JrodneyG dimension. His runners silks of bright yellow, green and turquoise are fan favorites due to their neon glowing effects which make it easy to spot his horses in the races. This horse was unraced as a 2 year old and started his career on the dirt at 3. He broke his maiden as a 4 year old on the turf and has turned into a solid long turf runner for the Fabulous Fred connections. In 2006 this horse finished 6th in the 1st Minnesota Turf on Minnesota Festival Day of Racing. He posted a lifetime best 100 speed rating in an 11 furlong allowance turf race in his 07 debut but this horse has an 0\/3 record in stakes races. Fab Fred has enlisted the services of the New Jersey horseman and track founder S Upertoy(8%) who once again will forgoe the sulky and climb ontop of the horse for this race.<\/P> 5)THEO’S MULLIGAN—7\/1—<\/STRONG>theodore1 sends this 5 year old horse out of MOUNTAIN CAT with a record of 25-4-9-4 and lifetime earnings of $317,163. This 2609th divisional ranked horse runs for the ever increasing number of barns under the care of current Minnesota Downs track manager Theo. With his duties of managing the track taking up so much of his time he has taken to bringing on a number of assistant trainers to handle his more than 400 horses. The lastest additions to his staff have been his two sons David and Justin who at ages 4 and 5 have been having some difficulties with the state racing commission in their attempts to get their permanent racing licenses. This horse was the winner of the 2005\/2006 Minnesota Sire series for Mountain Cat bred horses as he ended up with the most money won after the 20 race restricted series concluded. While he did post a lifetime best 104 speed rating on an 8 furlong allowance dirt race earlier this season his last 4 starts have been inconsistent which has prompted David and Justin to try the Supertoy Turf course to see if this wakes the Mulligan up. With the Australian Flash already booked to another mount The Mulligan will be ridden by Green(9.4%) this week so it is hoped that this horse can make some green with Mr Green who will be riding this horse on the Green.<\/P> 6)GENERAL DAN—10\/1—<\/STRONG>champs sends this 6 year old horse out of DANZIG with a record of 42-11-6-7 and lifetime earnings of $251,624. This 500th divisional ranked horse runs out of the Benelux based Urko stables and has made the trip here to Minnesota for this added money event today. This horse started his career on the dirt at 2 but did not break his maiden until his 3 year old season where he took a $40,000 claiming event. It was in this race where the current connections claimed this horse and he has turned out to be a solid turf route allowance runner since. His lifetime best 103 speed rating was attained in 2005 and his high rating this season was in his last race where he posted a 93 in an open allowance in California while finishing 3rd. He is 0\/3 in lifetime stakes starts and hopes to turn that around today. The ever reliable Stinson(11.8%) will be in the irons today for this race.<\/P> 7)DIXIE SLAM—10\/1—<\/STRONG>dori sends this 5 year old horse out of DIXIELAND BAND with a record of 32-4-1-5 and lifetime earnings of $81,132. He is out of the mare DANCE ON FIRE who was 4\/28 at the track with no stakes wins and has 2 foals on record of which 1 is a winner. This 757th divisional ranked horse was claimed by his current connections for $13,500 in 2005. There is not much known locally about either this owner or horse. He was winless in 2006 while running in\u00a0allowance company but has picked up 2 wins in 4 starts this year. He posted a lifetime best 99 speed rating in a NW2Y Ohio\u00a0allowance in his last start which has prompted this forray into his first stakes start. This horse is usually a front runner and it will remain to be seen whether or not he can handle the 9 furlong distance. Moore (15.2%) who has made the most of his limited rides will be in the saddle with this\u00a0horse today.<\/P> 8)PERFECT KARMA—7\/5<\/STRONG>—remedy sends this 4 year old\u00a0colt out of\u00a0PLEASANTLY PERFECT with a record of 22-7-6-5 and lifetime earnings of $342,692. He is out of the mare KARMA who was 4\/29 at the track with no stakes wins and this is the only foal of record. He races for one of then\u00a0newer outfits now based at Minnesota Downs but the Black and Red of the Doza\u00a0stables is becoming a regular to the\u00a0local winners circle\u00a0having already\u00a0won 2 added money events here in the last 6 weeks. It was considered a great coup to convince the veteran horseman to base\u00a0his operations\u00a0here at the\u00a0Downs and it seems to have payed off for the crafty\u00a0trainer as well. This colt started his career on the dirt but was switched to the turf midway thru\u00a0his 2 year old campaign. He does have 3 stakes victories in the bank to date and is coming off a powerfull performance\u00a0in winning The Grade III Florida Turf while posting a lifetime best 113 speed rating over the 9.5 furlong race. This heavy morning line favorite has attracted the services of the excellent rider Friar(20.2%) which will only make this runner more difficult to beat.<\/P> #1 SEEKING THE BRAVE, #4 THE TWO, #5 THEO’S MULLIGAN, #8 PERFECT KARMA ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCY 200 CREDIT BONUS IF THEY SHOULD WIN THE RACE.<\/P> WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE MINNESOTA DOWNS\u00a0RESIDENCY THIS WEEK<\/U><\/STRONG><\/P> Pazjazz won the speed rating contest last week with BLACK WOOD who posted a 101 speed rating which earned him 200 credits.<\/P> The Mountains of Money contest concludes this week with Cothill holding a slim $12.30 edge over Randy in this win place show money earning contest.<\/P> The 3rd leg of The Minnesota Sire Seris Contest for GULCH sired horse is running at the 16th race at Minnesota this week with a 7 furlong turf race. Cothill’s Big Gulp RyRy and Theo’s Stormina ETS currently are tied for 1st place in the series.<\/P> Last weeks 10th race feature at Minnesota was won by BONEZIP RIP(KY) out of the ksparrow11 stables. The local horses METEOR ROCKS for the Chuckrock stables finished 4th while Theo’s QUALITY FIELD ETS ended up last after getting injured in the race.<\/P> Next weeks will bring the return of Chuckrock’s Minnesota Downs horse of the week. The weekly winner of this honor will get a writeup in the weekly This Week in Minnesota column.<\/P> GOOD LUCK AND GOOD RACING.<\/P> THEO<\/P> MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENT MANAGER<\/P> \u00a0<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TURF ROUTERS HILITE MINNY CARD THIS WEEK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}