Horse Betting News at LinesMaker

Contested Wins Santa Anita Feature

ARCADIA, CA (Yahoo) — Con­tested romped to a 5 3/4-length vic­tory Sun­day in the $ 66,040 Titanic Purse for 3-year-old fil­lies at Santa Anita. Rid­den by Mar­tin Gar­cia, Con­tested ran 6 1/2 fur­longs in 1:15.58 and paid $ 2.60 and $ 2.10 as the 3–10 favorite. She is trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baf­fert and owned by his wife, Jill. “It’s going to be a happy home tonight,” Baf­fert said. Hid­den Pas­sion returned $ 4, while Heleonor Rugby was another half-length back in third. Dypsy ran last in a field reduced to four starters by the late scratch of Tiz the Tide. The... 

Proposed Ban on Race Day Medications in Ky. Fails

LEXINGTON, Ky. (SCHREINER) — A pro­posal to ban an anti-bleeding drug on race days in Ken­tucky lost by a nose on Mon­day in a debate divid­ing a hob­bled thor­ough­bred indus­try strug­gling to pre­serve the Blue­grass state’s rep­u­ta­tion as the nation’s horse capital. The Ken­tucky Horse Rac­ing Com­mis­sion ended the tense dis­cus­sion on the use of furosemide with a 7–7 roll call vote on the pro­posed reg­u­la­tion that would have pro­hib­ited the drug from the Ken­tucky Derby in 2014, and in the whole state start­ing in 2015. The race-day ban would have... 

Baffert’s Bodemeister Works Out for Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE (HORSES/Newsfeed) — Trainer Bob Baf­fert said jok­ingly that he bet­ter hurry up and talk before he keeled over. His heart attack was no laugh­ing mat­ter last month when he thought he was dying in Dubai. He’s changed his rou­tine in the weeks since. That means med­ica­tion, a new work­out reg­i­men that included a walk on the tread­mill at 6 a.m. Tues­day morn­ing and slow­ing down just enough to enjoy the work he’s put into a Hall of Fame career. “I’ve got to redo, change my lifestyle for the best,” Baf­fert said. “I’ve got to take care of myself like... 

National Can Never Be Risk-Free, Says Racing Chief

LONDON (Wire/Horses) — The head of British horse rac­ing insists the Grand National can never be risk-free and warned against any knee-jerk reac­tion in the wake of two horses dying for the sec­ond straight year in the world’s most gru­el­ing jumps race. Ani­mal wel­fare groups have renewed calls for dras­tic change to be made to the for­mat of the event fol­low­ing pre-race favorite Syn­chro­nised and Accord­ing to Pete being put down after sus­tain­ing injuries in an incident-packed 2012 edition. It took the num­ber of horses to have died in the National in the past 12... 

Mizdirection Wins Las Cienegas Cap at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, CA (HORSES/Wire) — Mizdi­rec­tion beat Teroda by a half-length Sat­ur­day in the $ 100,000 Las Ciene­gas Hand­i­cap at Santa Anita, giv­ing the 4-year-old filly her fourth straight vic­tory for co-owner and sports talk host Jim Rome. Rid­den by David Flo­res, Mizdi­rec­tion ran 6 1/2 fur­longs in 1:16.50 and paid $ 2.60 and $ 2.10 as the 3–10 favorite. Teroda returned $ 2.40. La Nez was another 3 1/2 lengths back in third, and Saan­neen was fourth. The Grade 3 race was switched from turf to dirt after heavy rain fell­Fri­day, reduc­ing the field to four... 

Long Shot Great Warrior Wins at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, CA (HORSES/Wire) — Brazilian-bred Great War­rior, the longest shot by far in a field of seven, beat a pair of highly regarded horses from the barn of Bob Baf­fert to win the $ 60,700 Lost Hills Purse on Thurs­day at Santa Anita. Com­ing off a six-month lay­off and sprint­ing for the first time in eight starts, the 25–1 Great War­rior was sixth early but ral­lied in the stretch to win by a half-length, beat­ing Baffert-trained sta­ble­mates Sad­dler­anch and Hoorayforhollywood. Rid­den by 43-year-old jour­ney­man jockey Omar Berrio for trainer A.C. Avila, Great War­rior... 

It’s Tricky Wins the Big a’s Distaff Handicap

NEW YORK (WIRE/HORSES) — It’s Tricky, the 3–5 favorite, beat C C’s Pal by 3½ lengths on Sat­ur­day in the $ 200,000 Distaff Hand­i­cap for fil­lies and mares at Aqueduct. Break­ing from the out­side post in the five-horse field, It’s Tricky closely tracked the early lead­ers, Dontbeshy I’ll Buy and Nicole H, dur­ing the early stages. It’s Tricky appeared to be strug­gling turn­ing for home before respond­ing to right-handed encour­age­ment from Eddie Cas­tro for her fourth graded-stakes vic­tory, and sev­enth win in 11 career starts. The 4-year-old trained by... 

Union Rags Replaces Hansen on Derby Top 10 List

(Rosenblatt/Horse Rac­ing) Hansen blue his chance to be a Ken­tucky Derby favorite. He fin­ished sec­ond in the Blue Grass Stakes after a day­long art project in which the near-white colt’s tail was dyed blue, only to be rinsed off before the race. After being beaten by Dul­la­han on the final week­end of major Derby preps, Hansen has been replaced by Union Rags at No. 1 on the ‘s lat­est Run to the Roses’ Top 10 list of contenders. Union Rags regained the top spot he held for most of the prep sea­son before his third-place fin­ish after a tough trip in the Florida Derby on March 31. Trained... 

Dullahan Runs Down Hansen to Win Blue Grass Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. Dul­la­han and his team stayed in the back­ground all week while the atten­tion cen­tered on the near white colt Hansen and his eccen­tric owner. “This is the first chance I’ve had a chance to say much,” Done­gal Rac­ing man­ag­ing part­ner Jerry Craw­ford said. “We decided all week long we’d let our horse do the talk­ing today. I think he spoke pretty eloquently.” Dul­la­han ran down the horse at one point dubbed “The Great White Hope” in the final fur­long to insert his own name among the Ken­tucky Derby favorites in the $ 750,000 Blue Grass... 

Mike Smith Not Near Finish Line After 5,000 Wins

ARCADIA, Calif. — Mike Smith was more relieved than cel­e­bra­tory after his 5,000th career vic­tory. Kind of how the Hall of Fame jockey felt dur­ing Zenyatta’s 19–0 win­ning streak. Smith won $ 150,000 stakes races back-to-back Sat­ur­day at Santa Anita to reach the mile­stone, the 25th jockey in thor­ough­bred his­tory to do so. He accom­plished the feat rid­ing one of his favorite horses, Ama­zom­bie, last year’s cham­pion sprinter. Smith won by three-quarters of a length, never need­ing his whip to get home first. He delib­er­ately rode lower in the saddle. “I...