WHO’S HOT
Encino’s wire-to-wire victory in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland earned him sufficient qualifying points to make the Kentucky Derby field following the defection of No More Time. The top 19 on the points list, in addition to Japan Road to the Derby points leader T O Password, gain a Derby berth.
Maryland-based trainer Phil Schoenthal has had his provisional suspension for two methamphetamine positives in his horses reduced from 60 days to 15 days after working with officials from the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit on measures designed to reduce the risk of contamination, Schoenthal said.
Two stakes races held in South Korea have been added this year to the slate of contests that provide fees-paid berths to one of the 14 races for the Breeders’ Cup event, according to a schedule of the races distributed by Breeders’ Cup on Monday.
A Kentucky circuit court judge said Monday he will issue a ruling by the end of the week on whether to grant a temporary injunction that would allow horses trained by Bob Baffert and owned by Amr Zedan to start in this year’s Kentucky Derby despite a ban by Churchill Downs on the trainer.
All the prep races have been run and the qualifying points doled out. Now, several connections have decisions to make before the field for Kentucky Derby 150 is set.
Those decisions have to be finalized by April 27 when entries close and post positions are assigned for the $5 million Kentucky Derby. The field is limited to 20 starters, but as many as 24 horses may enter, with four carded as also-eligibles. Last year, 23 horses were entered and after scratches 18 ultimately went to post.
ARCADIA, Calif. – One year after riding in his first Kentucky Derby, champion Canadian jockey Kazushi Kimura picked up his second Derby mount. Kimura will ride lightly raced Japanese colt T O Password in the 2024 Kentucky Derby, his California agent Brian Beach confirmed.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Even as Jody’s Pride was running well on the dirt last year, trainer Jorge Abreu had the belief the filly was truly meant for the turf.
Now, she may actually get the chance to prove him right.
Jody’s Pride, who finished seventh in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland on April 5, is no longer under consideration for the Kentucky Oaks and is likely to be pointed to a turf race for her next start, Abreu said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Following her successful seasonal debut in Saturday’s Grade 3 Giant’s Causeway Stakes at Keeneland, Roses for Debra will be pointed to a stakes at Saratoga during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, trainer Christophe Clement said Sunday.
Clement said the options are the Grade 2, $200,000 Intercontinental Stakes against females on June 7 or the Grade 1, $500,000 Jaipur against males the following day. Both races are at 5 1/2 furlongs, the distance at which she won the Giant’s Causeway.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Sunday was a very good day for trainer Victor Barboza Jr. and the connections of Grand Mo the First, who got in his first work since finishing a well-beaten third behind Fierceness in the Grade 1 Florida Derby while also moving one step closer to gaining a spot in this year’s Kentucky Derby.
John Hennegan, a long-time racing official for the New York Racing Association, died on April 11 after a battle with brain cancer, his family announced over the weekend. He was 84.
Henngan began working at NYRA in 1965 and worked for nearly 40 years spanning five decades. He worked as a patrol judge, assistant clerk of scales, clerk of scales and placing judge. He was a patrol judge for the famous Ruffian-Foolish Pleasure match race at Belmont Park and was an official in various capacities for the Triple Crown-clinching victories of Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed.
