ARCADIA, Calif. – Hear the Ghost, who was scratched from Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Thursday because of an injury detected in a knee, will be rested for four months before he returns to training, trainer and co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday.
Hollendorfer stressed that Hear the Ghost’s injury was minor and would not require surgery, but said the timing eliminates a spring campaign, including the Triple Crown races.
The eighth season of Countdown to the Crown returns as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 4 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates, opinions and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.
Straight from the gate
The decision to bet with or against Verrazano as the 4-5 favorite in the Wood Memorial Saturday is less of a pure handicapping choice than an internal struggle between two voices that emerge in many a horseplayer’s mind this time of year.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bettors accustomed to watching a lot of races often can spot winners as the horses are traveling in the early to middle portion of their races. Their jockeys are relatively motionless, and the horses are moving smoothly without encouragement.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The twists and turns on the Kentucky Derby trail took another hairpin curve on Thursday afternoon when it was announced that Hear the Ghost, the San Felipe Stakes winner, would miss the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday because of an injury. He becomes the third horse, following Fountain of Youth runner-up Violence and Risen Star winner Ive Struck a Nerve, to be removed from consideration for the May 4 Kentucky Derby after winning a prep worth 50 points to the winner.
NEW YORK – The long road to the Kentucky Derby is nearing the end as two more major final Derby preps – the Wood Memorial and the Santa Anita Derby – will be checked off the list Saturday. The Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial tops a card at Aqueduct that includes four other graded stakes, the biggest being the Grade 1, $400,000 Carter Handicap. The Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby heads a card that includes three other graded events, the most notable being the Grade 1, $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks.
[bc_video_id:288404:]OZONE PARK, N.Y. – If one were to drive the 771 miles from Aqueduct to Churchill Downs, the route would include a trip over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, an imposing double-suspension structure that leads from Brooklyn to Staten Island and points south and west.
Ted Aroney likes to think he’s learned the secret of winning the Kentucky Derby, although it’s not much of a secret. More like fortune-cookie wisdom, so obvious that to deny its truth is nothing more than a waste of time.
Anybody can win.
His first lesson came in 1971, when Canonero II, the colt from Venezuela, came from out of the clouds – and the mutuel field – to win the 97th Kentucky Derby by 3 3/4 lengths despite a nightmarish experience in quarantine and a jockey-trainer combination that needed a guide and translator just to find Louisville, Ky.
