Berry Ties Lone Star Park Career Win Mark; Derby Day Wagering On Record Pace

(May 5, 2007) - Two-time Lone Star Park riding champ Cliff Berry rode three winners Saturday and tied Corey Lanerie's track record of 477 victories by a jockey at the Grand Prairie racetrack. The record-equaling mark came in Race 11 aboard the Cody Autrey-trained Go to Plan B, who beat Storm Search by a nose.

"My agent Richard McNaughton and I have had a lot of success here and we couldn't have done it without all the support of the horsemen," said Berry, the 44-year-old native of Joplin, Mo. who has been Lone Star's leading rider in each of the last two seasons. "I hope we can break the mark [Sunday]."

Berry is scheduled to ride five horses on Sunday's program, which begins at 1:35 p.m. CT. At the conclusion of Saturday's card, he was tied with Ramsey Zimmerman atop the jockey standings with 19 wins each. Zimmerman, 25, won two races and pulled within two victories of 1,000th career win.

A crowd of 15,961 attended Lone Star Park on Saturday for 12 live races and a simulcast of the 133rd Kentucky Derby. As of 7:30 p.m., Lone Star Park was on pace to challenge its single day Spring Thoroughbred Season on-track handle record of $3,412,462 on May 1, 2004. More than $3.25 million had been wagered on-track ($893,580 on live racing and another $2.35 million on simulcasts), and betting in Lone Star Park's simulcast facility, the Post Time Pavilion, was to continue well into the night with 18 racetracks still exporting their signals. Last year, a total of $3,330,245 was bet on-track the entire day.

Local wagering on Churchill Downs' Kentucky Derby Day program totaled $1,610,723, including $1,117,811 on "The Run for the Roses." Lone Star's Drive-Thru Wagering business at Gate 2 was a record as 878 cars passed through the service lanes and wagered $154,786, a 39% increase from last year's $111,246.

The Kentucky Derby, won impressively by 2-year-old champion Street Sense, was showcased between Lone Star Park's seventh and eighth races on a 12-race live program. Hard Spun, who dictated the pace of :22.9, :46.26 and 1:11.13, was 2 ¼ lengths back in second, 5 ¾ lengths ahead of the Steve Asmussen-trained Curlin, who suffered the first defeat of his brief career.

Street Sense, far back in the early stages of the race, rallied brilliantly along the inside rail under jockey Calvin Borel to cross the finish line in 2:02.17. He paid $11.80 to win as the 9-2 favorite in the field of 20. In doing so, the Carl Nafzger-trained horse became the first horse to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at age 2 and the Kentucky Derby at 3. He was also the first horse since Sunny's Halo in 1983 to win the Derby with only two prep races as a 3-year-old.

Nafzger, a native of Plainview, Texas, also won the Kentucky Derby in 1990 with Unbridled. Borel and owner/breeder Jim Tafel won the Derby for the first time.

A rematch of the top three Derby finishers in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, May 19, is probable.

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