At the post

Jack Van Berg
Jack Van Berg

DAY 23 of 57

ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE 21,000

ON-TRACK HANDLE $1,294,426

TOTAL HANDLE $4,218,007

PICK 5 PAYOFF $369.50

SIMULCAST SCHEDULE Gulfstream Park, 11 a.m.; Laurel Park, 11:30 a.m.; Tampa Bay, 11:35 a.m.; Aqueduct, 11:50 a.m.; Fair Grounds, 1:25 p.m.; Santa Anita, 2:30 p.m.; Golden Gate, 2:45 p.m.

SATURDAY'S STARS

Jockey Declan Cannon won two races Saturday: Son of Pearl ($9.20) in the first for trainer Chris Hartman and Sumpter ($17.60) in the fifth for trainer William Van Meter. Cannon, in his first season riding at Oaklawn, has 9 victories in 62 mounts. ... Trainer Jack Van Berg won two races to give him 6,490 in his 60-year career. ... Terra Promessa performed like a 1-2 favorite in the Grade III $150,000 Bayakoa Stakes, outdueling sprinter Super Saks to the first turn, establishing a 1½-length lead, opening to 3 lengths after 6 furlongs in 1:11.99 and winning by 4¾ over Power of Snunner in 1:43.18. Terra Promessa is now 5 for 5 at Oaklawn.

RESPECT YOUR ELDERS

Jack Van Berg, 80, came into Saturday's 10-race card with 6,488 victories in 60 years of training, according to Equibase. Van Berg is so accomplished he has been a member of the Hall of Fame for more than 31 years. He was inducted into the Saratoga Springs, N.Y., shrine in August 1985, two years before he trained Alysheba to victories in the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. By those standards, Van Berg's accomplishments Saturday were rather modest, winning with California Coast ($9.40) in the third, a $15,000 claimer for nonwinners of 3 races lifetime, and the seventh with Manhattan Mischief ($9.60). Van Berg has rebuilt his stable since returning from an unproductive 20-year stretch on the Southern California circuit. Van Berg went 0 for 17 at Oaklawn in 2014, 1 for 53 in 2015, then bounced back in 2016 with 14 victories in 111 starts to finish eighth in the training standings. Van Berg won Oaklawn training titles in 1983 and 1984.

LOADED AND READY

Gun Runner, a third-place finisher in last year's Kentucky Derby, is scheduled to make his first start as a 4-year-old in Monday's Grade III $500,000 Razorback Handicap. Gun Runner, a multiple graded stakes winner of $2,037,800, posted other big victories in the Louisiana Derby in March at Fair Grounds and in the Grade I Clark Handicap in November. He also won the Grade II $400,000 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds and ran second in the Grade I $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita and the Grade II $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx. Gun Runner had been training this winter at Fair Grounds before arriving earlier this month in Hot Springs. Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, he was assigned top weight of 122 pounds for the 1 1/16-mile Razorback. The son of Candy Ride is scheduled to break from the rail under regular rider Florent Geroux.

IVAN HO!

Ivan Fallunovalot, under Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel, posted the fastest of the morning 5-furlong work (:59.60) over a fast track Saturday morning in advance of a scheduled start in the $125,000 Hot Springs Stakes on March 11. Clockers caught Ivan Fallunovalot galloping out 6 furlongs in 1:13. Ivan Fallunovalot, in his 7-year-old debut, finished fourth in the $125,000 King Cotton Stakes on Feb. 4. The gelding had won the King Cotton the previous two years and had never finished worse than second in seven previous starts at Oaklawn.

FINAL FURLONG

Trainer Mike Lauer won consecutive races Friday, taking the second with Fervent ($23.40) and third with Point After ($22.80). Lauer, Indiana Grand's second-leading trainer last year, also won consecutive races Feb. 3 (early daily double) and has four victories at the meeting. ... Jon Court, Oaklawn's leading jockey in 2000, won two races Friday. Court, 56, was aboard Fervent and won the fourth race aboard Strawberry Bomb ($8.80) for trainer Tom Swearingen. Court ($99,094,978) is trying to become the 50th jockey to reach $100 million in career North American purse earnings, according to Equibase. Court (4,010) ranks No. 70 in career North American victories, according to Equibase. ... Oaklawn surpassed $2 million in claims at the meeting Friday, the 22nd day of the scheduled 57-day season. There have been 163 claims totaling $2,038,000 at the meeting. ... Retired Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, Oaklawn's leading rider in 1983-1994, was a press box visitor Friday.

Inf0rmation for this article contributed by the Oaklawn Park media department.

Sports on 02/19/2017

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