Calder to offer more than $9.4 million in stakes

Calder Race Course's stakes schedules for the 2008 Calder and Tropical meets

were released by Racing Secretary Mike Anifantis Thursday. The program is

punctuated by several special event days, including the inaugural Turf Million

on April 26 as well as renewals of the Summit of Speed and Festival of the Sun

during the Calder Meet and the Florida Million and Grand Slam series during the

Tropical Meet.

Between the two meets, 64 stakes races worth $9,405,000 will be run at

Calder, whose 37th racing season begins on April 21. Seventeen of the stakes

carry graded status by the American Graded Stakes Committee, including the

$500,000 Princess Rooney H. (G1) to be run on the Summit of Speed program on

July 12.

The Princess Rooney and the $500,000 Smile Sprint H. (G2) are part of the

2008 Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" program, with the winner of

each race automatically qualifying for a spot in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare

Sprint and Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), respectively. The $25.5 million Breeders'

Cup World Championships will be held October 24-25 at The Oak Tree Racing

Association meet at Santa Anita Park.

Last week, Calder announced the introduction of the new Turf Million, which

features four turf stakes totaling $1.15 million: the $400,000 Calder Derby

(G3), $300,000 Mairzy Doates H., $250,000 Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint and $200,000

Calder Oaks. Anifantis has already begun recruiting horses for the event and

reminds horsemen that the closing date for nominations for the Turf Million

stakes races is April 16.

Calder's Summit of Speed is now in its ninth year and is Thoroughbred

racing's richest day of sprints, featuring six stakes races for all divisions.

Three eventual Breeders' Cup winners participated in the Summit of Speed over

the years, including last year's Filly & Mare Sprint winner, Maryfield.

The Festival of the Sun, now in its 17th year, is Calder's signature event

and will be held on October 18. Eight stakes races, including the rich finales

of the Florida Stallion Stakes, command the attention on the racetrack, but

complementary horse-related events and family-style entertainment abound as

well, making the Festival of the Sun Calder's best-attended day annually.

Leading up to the Festival of the Sun are the September 6 Juvenile Showcase

and the September 27 Festival of the Sun Preview.

The Calder Meet schedule has two new stakes races this year: the

abovementioned Mairzy Doates on Turf Million day, and the $125,000 Leave Me

Alone S. on the June 14 Summit of Speed Preview card. The Leave Me Alone is for

three-year-old fillies going six furlongs and is a prep for the Azalea S. (G3)

on Summit of Speed day.

Another change is the renaming of the Criterium S. to the Frank Gomez

Memorial S. The leading trainer at Calder numerous times and the developer of

several Eclipse Award winners, Frank Gomez passed away in December 2007. Gomez

was a charter inductee into the Calder Hall of Fame in 1995. The Criterium, a

race for two-year-olds run at Calder since 1972, was won by Gomez in 1979 with

She Can't Miss and 1984 with Smile.

The Tropical Meet signals the start of the winter racing season in South

Florida and boasts a strong stakes schedule, including nine graded stakes. Major

events include The Florida Million (November 8); Grand Slam I (December 6);

Grand Slam II (December 13); and Grand Slam III (December 27). The Florida

Million, now in its seventh year, features eight stakes races for registered

Florida-breds worth $1.2 million.

The three Grand Slam events showcase eight of the Tropical Meet's graded

stakes, including such historic turf races as the $200,000 La Prevoyante H. (G2)

and $200,000 W.L. McKnight H. (G2). The first derby of the year in the country,

the Tropical Park Derby (G3), is traditionally held on New Year's Day along with

the Tropical Park Oaks for newly turned three-year-old fillies.

New in 2008, the $100,000 Challenge of the Americas Invitational on November

16 will bring together Thoroughbreds foaled in North, South and Central America

-- an appropriate contest given South Florida's international flavor as well as

the diversity of the sport's participants at Calder.