Scenes from West Virginia Derby Day

On my first ever visit to Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort, I thought it would be nice to capture the scenes from West Virginia Derby Day, for all those people like me, who have never been here before. The racing card is jam packed with stakes races, nine in all, and plenty of nice horses, including an Eclipse Award winner. So while I get to cross off #51 on my list of thoroughbred tracks in which I have seen live racing, please enjoy all the photos, and keep checking in as the afternoon moves along.

The first of nine stakes races of the day, The Mountaineer Juvenile went to a good looking young son of Gone Astray, Bullet Gone Astray. Trained by Henry Collazo, the juvenile colt is now 2-for-2 lifetime after this impressive 9-length score.

The ownership team told me that he will be headed back to Florida before a likely trip to Saratoga for his next race.

Trophies for the big day were all brought out for display early in the day -- Here is Jim with the big one.

Mountaineer is an older facility, but a pretty one.

Kentucky Derby winning jockey, Edgar Prado, with photographer Sharon Whitacre, after winning the Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies Stakes aboard Sombree.

The West Virginia Senate President's Cup, on the Mountaineer turf course, was won by the four-year-old daughter of After Market, Market Magic.

Work All Week, the Champion Male Sprinter of 2014, looked like his old self with an overpowering gate-to-wire runaway eight-length victory in the Senator Robert C. Byrd Memorial, under Florent Geroux.

After the race, I talked with winning trainer Roger Brueggemann. "That's more like it," said Brueggemann. "He got off to bad starts in his first two races of the year, so this was good. He'll go back to Churchill for now, and we'll look around for his next start. The Phoenix and the Breeders' Cup [Sprint] at Keeneland are his goals."

Reformed cheap claimer, and Illinois-bred, Looks to Spare did not look like a 74-1 shot before the $200,000 West Virginia Governor's Stakes. I didn't bet him mind you, but he did look pretty good for trainer Otabek Umarov.

No surprises in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby, as 5-2 choice Madefromlucky took the overland route to forge to the lead in mid-stretch, and took over the race late to roll home a convincing winner of the Grade 2 feature. They say a picture is worth a thousand words -- here is a jubilant Joe Bravo telling the story after the race.

Now a two-time winner of a Grade 2 stakes race, Madefromlucky could make the Grade 1 Travers his next start, according to his connections.