Tahitian Queen worked on Thursday with jockey Jose Ferrer aboard. Trainer Tammy Domenosky discusses the workout, why the filly was equipped with blinkers, and the possibility of racing opening night.
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Tammy mentions that the workout went in 103 which means one minute and three seconds for the five furlongs. Each morning, on the press box level of the grandstand, two clockers time the workouts and report them to the racing office and to Equibase which keeps all official data. When a horse is going to have an official timed work, the rider reports the horse’s name to the timer’s stand located just inside the backside gap where the horses enter the track. The name, distance and a description of the rider is radioed to the clockers in the grandstand. They use stop watches to clock the work.
Here is a link to the CONDITION BOOK page. Click on TB race index and you will see a PDF that lists race conditions and dates. On page two of that PDF look under Fillies and Mares Three, Four and Five Year Olds. Look for M10000 and read across, you’ll see the May 15 race under short, which means a sprint, and May 17 under long, which means a route.
Tammy is concerned that the long race might not ‘fill’ this early in the meet. Not filling means that there are not enough horses entered for the race so the racing secretary, Doug Schoepf, opts not to use that race. With many horses coming off layoffs, it is not unusual for the longer races to come up short on entries as trainers enter in the sprints.
Because of this, if Tahitian Queen is entered, it would likely be for Friday, May 15. Then we just hope that race fills.
Back to the condition book page and click on Condition Book One. Go to page two and you will find the race, a 5 1/2 furlong maiden claiming race, listed as S1. The first nine races are the ones that would have first chance to be used. If one of those does not fill then S1 could be used.
Entries for Opening Night will be taken on Tuesday.
jm
Canterbury Racing Club 