Dale Romans has his stakes contingent preparing for the next round of battle after a somewhat disappointing Kentucky Derby weekend that was salvaged by a Grade 1 victory for the stable.
Trainer Kellyn Gorder has been granted a stay of a 14-month suspension for two Kentucky rules violations and will be free to start horses until an appeal of the ruling is heard, according to Kentucky chief state steward Barbara Borden.
Phil’s Dream, the 2013 Canadian male sprint champion, will look to capture the $125,000 New Providence Stakes for the second year in a row when he takes on eight other Ontario-sired rivals in the six-furlong sprint on Sunday at Woodbine.
Discreetly Elusive (#6, ML 7-2) returns in Friday’s fourth race at Belmont Park, a six-furlong optional claimer. It will be her first start since a fourth-place finish by 4 3/4 lengths in an optional claimer Feb. 4 at Gulfstream Park. The first- and second-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
Only two turf winners are entered in Sunday’s $75,000 Alcatraz at Golden Gate Fields, and they appear the ones to beat. Sky Preacher, who graduated on the turf and then ran second in the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf, looms the likely favorite in the one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds.
The 57th Assiniboia Downs season kicks off on Sunday, beginning a 50-day meet that is scheduled to conclude Sept. 7.
BreezeFigs Quick-Pix for Saturday, May 9th by Bob Fierro and Jay Kilgore.
It has been nearly 18 months since 2013 Little Brown Jug winner Vegas Vacation last stepped on the track. That was before his third-place finish in a qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack on May 1. Now the Casie Coleman trainee is nearly ready for a renaissance to his racing career.
The California Horse Racing Board has banned horses from Turf Paradise racetrack from being shipped to California racetracks after the viral disease vesicular stomatitis was detected in a horse based at the Phoenix racetrack.
Jockey David Flores was reinstated to resume riding by Santa Anita stewards on Thursday, reversing a March decision by stewards in Singapore to suspend the veteran rider for a year for failing to obtain the best possible placing in a race in that country in February.
