LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Modesty Stakes used to be a handicap run during July at Arlington Park. That’s relatively ancient history, but connections of the 4-year-old filly Heavenly Sunday hope history repeats itself.
On Kentucky Oaks Day in 2023, Heavenly Sunday went wire to wire in the Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes. On this Oaks Day, she could be the controlling speed in the Grade 3, $400,000 Modesty, a 1 1/8-mile grass contest for older fillies and mares.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brad Cox thought he’d be running Denim and Pearls on the first Friday in May at Churchill Downs. He just thought it would be in the Kentucky Oaks, not the Eight Belles.
But after Denim and Pearls twice failed to see out two turns in stakes at Oaklawn Park, Cox cut Denim and Pearls back to one turn in the Beaumont Stakes last month at Keeneland. Denim and Pearls responded with a dominant 9 1/4-length victory that makes her one of the choices in Friday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Eight Belles going seven furlongs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After capping off a near-perfect season with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to sew up an Eclipse Award as champion older dirt female of 2023 what does Idiomatic do for an encore in 2024?
“I don’t know,” trainer Brad Cox said with a smile. “I guess try to stay undefeated and make a run at Horse of the Year. We’ll let her determine if that’s in the cards, but I will say I am very excited about getting her year started.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Handicappers who subscribe to the horse-for-course angle will have a dilemma when it comes to Friday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Trademark, who floundered in Florida, returns to Churchill, where he has four wins and a second from six starts. In last November’s Clark Stakes, Trademark nosed out First Mission, with both earning a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure. That was First Mission’s lone start at Churchill.
In early April 1989, trainer Shug McGaughey, back on the East Coast, had the Santa Anita Derby on his mind. McGaughey trained Easy Goer, champion 2-year-old of 1988, a brilliant winner of his first two starts at age 3. Two weeks after the Santa Anita Derby, Easy Goer would cement his favoritism for the Kentucky Derby by winning the Wood Memorial by three lengths.
McGaughey watched as a colt named Sunday Silence, who hadn’t even faced stakes competition as a 2-year-old, roared to an 11-length win in the Santa Anita Derby.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – When D. Wayne Lukas met Keith Asmussen at a South Dakota racetrack more than 60 years ago, neither could have imagined Asmussen’s grandson would be attempting to give Lukas his fifth win in the Kentucky Derby.
“We were trying to make ends meet, let alone make a living,” Asmussen said.
A place in the Kentucky Derby starting gate is a coveted dream. It also is one of the hardest places in racing to get into, despite a larger gate, literally, than other prestigious American races.
It’s a sad song.
It’s a sad tale, it’s a tragedy.
It’s a sad song.
We’re gonna sing it anyway.
– 2019 Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown”
Black Gold’s story is tragic. The game little black horse died at Fair Grounds after breaking down in January 1928, racing through lameness and past his prime. It was a failure on the part of the humans in his life – and a coda to the tragedy in their own lives.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 67 degrees
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Monday proved to be a pretty quiet morning on the Kentucky Derby and Oaks watch with perhaps the most eventful moment taking place about 100 yards from the finish line where T O Password shied from a shadow on the track, nearly unseating his rider in the process while in the latter stages of his routine gallop.
The name may change but the venue remains the same.
With the renovation of Belmont Park – including the demolition of the grandstand – well underway, the Belmont at the Big A spring meet kicks off Thursday at Aqueduct with an eight-race card. First post is 1:05 p.m. as it will be for most of the 31 days during the meet, which runs through July 7.
