Kiss Moon was assigned post 12 as the 120-pound highweight in a field of 13 fillies and mares entered in the Grade 3, $100,000 Cardinal Handicap, to be run Saturday as the lone graded stakes of the weekend at Churchill Downs.
I actually came up with a couple situations where the trainer rule might make sense. So, while I generally do not think the concept of the trainer report policy will work, I will keep an open mind.
Eighth Wonder has faced relatively modest competition so far, but on Sunday kept her record perfect with a ridiculously easy win in the restricted Donna Freyer Stakes at Parx Racing.
Beholder, scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Classic two days before the race when she bled following a gallop at Keeneland, is getting some downtime away from the track and is not expected to rejoin trainer Richard Mandella’s barn at Santa Anita until early January.
Lucky Folie, who won the Desi Arnaz Stakes for 2-year-old fillies last Sunday, could come back in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 12 or simply await the Santa Anita winter meeting, according to trainer Richard Mandella.
What motivates trainer Steve Asmussen, who celebrated his 50th birthday Wednesday, is not what he has done, but what he still has to do.
Al Kazeem, an eight-time European group stakes winner whose lofty expectations at stud were quashed by subfertility, will return to the breeding shed for the 2016 season after a brief but successful stint at the races this year. Racing Post reports that the 7-year-old son of Dubawi will stand at owner-breeder John Deer’s Oakgrove Stud in Chepstow, England, for an advertised fee of $18,250 (12,000 British pounds) on a special live foal basis.
Rock You, the winner of the All American Gold Cup at Ruidoso Downs in September, qualified for the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 12 after winning a $15,000 time trial last Sunday.
Taris, third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31, is a candidate for the $300,000 Go For Wand Handicap at Aqueduct on Nov. 27.
The Grade 1 winner Warren’s Veneda might start against males in the $150,000 Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 28 in her first start since a seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland on Oct. 30.
