With last week’s Minnesota Festival Day of Racing behind us things are getting back to normal here at Minnesota Downs. A record crowd was on hand last week for a great card of racing and now the regular winter season resumes. This week’s 10th race feature is The Northern Que Bonanza Stakes for all horses 3 years old and up. They will be sprinting 7 furlongs on the Supertoy7 Marshall Turf course and chasing top share of the $50,000 purse.<\/P>
Let’s take a look at today’s field:<\/P>
1)CLICKIT OR TICKET(KY)—8\/1—<\/STRONG>baseball sends this 3 year old colt out of KING CUGAT with a record of 17-5-4-4 and lifetime earnings of $66,236. He is out of the he-mare A.P. TURF who was 6\/44 at the track. This 973rd divisional ranked colt races for the unafilliated Baseball stables. This colt had 2 allowance wins in his 2 year old season with both of them coming on the dirt. This year he has picked up 3 more dirt allowance wins and will be looking for his first turf win in his stakes debut today. He posted his lifetime best 104 speed rating last time out while finishing a hard closing 3rd in a turf sprint allowance in Rhode Island. He is a late closer who may need to go longer to be at his most successfull but his last speed rating sure puts him in the mix today. The rider for today’s race will be Osborn (6.5%). PROJECTED SPEED RATING—99.<\/STRONG><\/P> 2)CYMBALTA—7\/2—<\/STRONG>lenny3 sends this 4 year old colt out of KINGMAMBO with a record of 15-5-5-2 and lifetime earnings of $86,489. This 981st divisional ranked colt races for Lenny’s Evil Empire based at the GR Simsters. This colt did not race as a 2 year old and after a dirt debut won his first 2 turf starts last year in his 3 year old season. This year he has added 3 allowance wins to his record and will be looking for his first stake win in his 4th attempt. He posted his lifetime best 104 speed rating earlier this year. He is dropping back in distance and this will be his first start at a sprint distance in his career. He is a closer and it will be interesting to see how he responds to the distance change. The rider for today’s race will be Green (9.8%). PROJECTED SPEED RATING—101.<\/STRONG><\/P> 3)TETE CANDLEMASS(IRE)—9\/2—<\/STRONG>twoyearold sends this 4 year old colt out of MONTJEU(IRE) with a record of 31-9-4-3 and lifetime earnings of $177,552. He is out of the mare TRICKY SLEW who was 8\/47 at the track and who has 5 foals on record, all winners. This 679th divisional ranked colt races for the GR Simsters division of the Clement- Migliore stables. This colt won his first 2 lifetime starts as a 2 year old and added a third allowance win in his 3 year old season. His current connections claimed him for $50K earlier this year and have picked up 3 allowance wins with him since. This will be his 3rd straight stake start and he has finished in the top 3 in both of his previous runs. He posted his lifetime best 104 speed rating 2 starts back while finishing 3rd in The North Bee(NZ) Challenge in China. He is another closer who has been flip flopping between route and sprint starts of late. The rider for today’s race will be Foster (7.5%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—102.<\/STRONG><\/P> 4)FLYPHARD’S EVENT—3\/1—<\/STRONG>lafly sends this 6 year old horse out of EVENT OF THE YEAR with a record of 63-22-12-10 and lifetime earnings of $1,328,470. This 46th divisional ranked horse races for the unaffilliated division of the Brundlefly stables. This veteran has won 20 stake races in his career including 2 Graded stake starts. While the 2004 and 2005 season may have been this horses best he is still a formidable opponent as atested by his top speed rating of 108 for this year posted in September. He still has some speed out of the gate and should be postioned forward early in the race and if he has his A game on today will be a hot contender here today. The rider for today’s race will be Friar (17.2%). PROJECTED SPEED RATING—100.<\/STRONG> <\/P> 5)EDGE OF THE KNIFE—5\/1—<\/STRONG>chesapeake sends this 4 year old colt out of THE CLIFFS EDGE with a record of 31-5-7-4 and lifetime earnings of $108,027. This 159th divisional ranked colt races out of the Kentucky Horeseman residency. This colt raced on the dirt in the 2005 and 2006 season and has changed hands twice via the claiming box with the most recent connections picking him up for $25K this past April. They have picked up 3 turf allowance sprint victories since then and will be looking for this colt’s first stake win in his 5th try this season. He posted his lifetime best 104 speed rating 3 starts back while finishing 3rd in The Salamance Stakes in North Dakota. While ususally a front running speed horse he has failed to get the lead in his last 3 starts and will probably need to clear the front here in order to win his first added money event of his career. The rider for today’s race will be E R Cothill (14.3%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—98.<\/STRONG><\/P> 6)WOODCHAMP(KY)—5\/1—<\/STRONG>ultimate sends this 3 year old colt out of WOODMAN with a record of 16-7-3-1 and lifetime earnings of $167,005. He is out of the mare CHAMP(IRE) who was 9\/40 at the track and who has 3 foals on record of which 2 are winners including 1 stakes winner. This 113th divisional ranked colt races out of the Pastures of Green division of the Dentition Stables. This colt picked up 2 wins last year in his 2 year old season including a turf overnite stake victory. He has added 5 allowance wins to his record this year and will be dropping back to the sprint distance after a try at 8 furlongs last time out. He posted his lifetime best 103 speed rating 3 starts back in a turf allowance win. He is a closer who sits at the back of the pack early on in the race. The rider for today’s race will be Ritorto (11.2%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—101.<\/STRONG><\/P> 7)FAITH FANTASTIC(MD)—4\/1—<\/STRONG>trilobite sends this 3 year old colt out of FANTASTICAT with a record of 15-6-5-1 and lifetime earnings of $199,084. He is out of the mare COUNT PINKIE who was 1\/10 at the track and who has 4 foals on record of which 3 are winners including 1 stakes winner. This 30th divisional ranked colt races for the DelPenn National division of the ChayelyB stables. This colt ran on the dirt for his first 5 starts in his 2 year old season and broke his maiden on that surface. He was switched to the turf and picked up an allowance win last year and has added 4 wins this season including a pair of overnite stake races. He posted his lifetime best 105 speed rating last time out while winning a turf sprint allowance race in Tennessee. This mid pack closer should be fairly close to the pace in today’s race to have his best shot at victory. The rider for today’s race will be Bowen (19.5%).\u00a0 PROJECTED SPEED RATING—103.<\/STRONG> <\/P> NONE OF TODAY’S RUNNERS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE MINNESOTA DOWNS 200 CREDIT PURSE SUPPLEMENT TODAY.<\/P> WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE MINNESOTA DOWNS RESIDENCE THIS WEEK<\/U><\/STRONG><\/P> Well the results are in for this year’s Minnesota Festival Day of Racing and what a great day it was.<\/P> Fernando’s Belisario(KY) posted a 111 speed rating in winning The Minnesota Derby while Team Ck’s CK Blurred Vision(KY) posted a 105 speed rating in winning The Minnesota Oaks.<\/P> Bluegrass Derby winner Ataun(KY) thrilled the crowd with a hard late closing victory in The Minnesota Classic posting a 113 speed rating and Brentuk’s Credit Advantage(ENG) won The Minnesota Turf with a 112 mark.<\/P> Randy’s excellent turf miler Woodyna captured The Minnesota Mile with a super 120 speed rating and he also captured The Minnesota Sprint with Scotian Gift who posted a 112 mark.<\/P> The juvenile races went to Theo’s Capper’s Choice(KY) for the boys posting a 97 mark and Darnath’s Rattyburg(KY) winning the girls event with a 94 rating.<\/P> Randy was the top trainer of the event with 3 wins and over 10,000 credits were distributed in prizes to many of the Minnesota horseman.<\/P> Theatrical was the winner in the Festival Day place all contest when his selection finished in the money in 13 of 16 races, that earned him the 1000 credit top prize.<\/P> Next week we will have the year end issue of This Week in Minnesota and we will post all the yearly contest winners at that time.<\/P> GOOD LUCK AND GOOD RACING<\/P> THEO<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OPEN TURF SPRINT HILITED 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-5249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249","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=5249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}