Our weekly LookBack, in which we revisit some of last week’s top stories…
- The gnomes were out at Colonial Downs on Saturday (here) — but that was nothing compared to Sunday, which featured camels and ostriches (and, yes, horses)… oh, my! A festive crowd of nearly 5,700 turned out in New Kent to enjoy the show. In something of an odd twist, four jockeys won two races each to account for every race on the card; Luis Garcia, Geovany Garcia, Xavier Perez, and Carlos Marquez, Jr. all found the winners’ circle twice.
- Ted Black didn’t have the greatest luck handicapping Saturday’s two stakes from Delaware (here) — his bet-against in the G3 Obeah, Bryan’s Jewel (at 3-10), edged And Why Not, while his choice in the Go for Wand, Disco Barbie, was scratched — but he accomplished something more unusual. He nailed the running time in the Obeah — 1:51 1/5 for 1 1/8 miles — and just missed it in the Go for Wand; in the latter race, he predicted 1:41 flat, and the horses completed the course in 1:40 4/5. Tell a Great Story, winner of the Go for Wand, edged Ile St. Molly in a long stretch duel; the Sagamore Farm homebred, who was ridden by Forest Boyce, is now “in the picture” for next month’s Grade 2 Delaware Oaks, according to a Sagamore release.
- The Ramon Dominguez tributes continue. The rider, whose career ends with 4,985 wins and over $190 million in earnings, announced his retirement, the result of a riding injury, earlier this week. Dominguez, who won three Breeders’ Cup events and finished first or second among riders by both wins and earnings in each of the last four years, began his career riding in Maryland and the mid-Atlantic; Teresa Genaro spoke with some area trainers about him here. Meanwhile, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) has released this brief tribute video:
(Featured image is ostrich racing at Colonial Downs. Photo by Nick Hahn.)
