Timonium ups purses, adds Coalition Stakes for 2017

The Timonium race meet at the Maryland State Fair begins a seven-day run Friday with higher purses and, for the first time in years, a stakes race.

Racing will be offered over the five-furlong track this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and from Friday to Monday next week. The meet closes on Labor Day.

Purses will average $185,000 per day, up from $160,000 a year ago, an increase of 16 percent. The suburban Baltimore-area track will hold the $75,000 Coalition Stakes on Saturday, a 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-yearolds and upward.

The Coalition will be the first stakes at Timonium since 2008. It will offer an additional $25,000 for Maryland-breds. Fasig-Tipton will pay the winner another $10,000 if he or she was sold at a Mid-Atlantic sale.

Since early last year, the Maryland Jockey club has operated a year-round off-track betting facility at Timonium. According to Georgeanne Hale, the director of racing at Timonium, the track’s racing board lobbied for its purses to be on more of a par with Laurel Park and Pimlico.

The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association agreed to a purse increase and to fund the Coalition. The Maryland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association contributed to the stakes purse.

“The Timonium Racing Board is trying to build up the program, and they wanted to have a stakes to bring some attention to the meet,” Hale said. “To me, the higher purses make it more of a Maryland meet and we are getting some of our horsemen and jockeys who don’t usually race here to compete.”

To further encourage participation, a $20,000 trainers’ bonus will again be offered. A $15,000 participation pool will reward the top five trainers at the meet based on a points system for first, second, third, and total starters. A separate $5,000 award will be given to the trainer who earns the most purse money at Timonium.

If the top-earning trainer also is among the top five points earners, he or she will only receive the earnings award and will be replaced in the participation pool by the next eligible trainer.

The Coalition could go a long way to determining the top money winner at the meet.

The nine-race opening-day card has 83 entrants, an average of 9.2 horses per race. The feature race is a first-level optional claimer for fillies and mares at four furlongs with a purse of $36,000.

The card also includes two maiden races, one for 2-yearold fillies at four furlongs, and another for 3-year-olds and up at about 6 1/2 furlongs. Both races have a purse of $35,000.

Juarez moving tack to Belmont

Nik Juarez, runaway leader of the Monmouth Park jockey standings, will begin riding in New York when Belmont Park opens Sept. 8, according to Juarez and his new agent, Ron Anderson.

Juarez will ride at Belmont and Aqueduct through fall and then return to Florida, where he has ridden with success since January 2016. At the last Gulfstream Park winter meet, Juarez tied for fourth in the standings with Javier Castellano, trailing only Luis Saez, Paco Lopez, and Tyler Gaffalione.

“I’m taking a leap of faith,” Juarez said about riding in New York.

Juarez, 24, is a native of Westminster, Md. He began his career in Maryland in 2013 and has ridden at Monmouth each summer since 2014. At the beginning of 2016, he left Maryland for South Florida.

Juarez will be parting ways with agent Jay Rushing at the conclusion of the Monmouth Park meet Sept. 10. Anderson will continue to represent Joel Rosario.

Over the years, Anderson has represented the Hall of Fame jockeys Chris Antley, Jerry Bailey, Garrett Gomez, and Gary Stevens, plus Corey Nakatani and Fernando Toro.

“Over the last five or six years, I’ve had some guys approach me about taking them on, but nothing really felt right,” Anderson said. “They were either going to conflict with Joel or there was something else. This feels different. I’ve told Nik it’s not going to be any berry patch here. It’s going to take a while for him to get started. But in some ways, I feel this is an opportune time for him to come here.”

Juarez has won 441 races from 2,788 mounts in his career and has purse earnings of more than $12.4 million. This year, Juarez won the Grade 2 BlackEyed Susan on Actress for trainer Jason Servis and the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks on Teresa Z for Anthony Margotta Jr. He also has won the Grade 3 Iselin twice, the Grade 3 Salvator Mile, and the Grade 3 Skip Away.

Juarez has 65 wins at the Monmouth meet and leads second-place rider Antonio Gallardo by 19.