Tom Doutrich, the racing secretary for the California Authority of Racing Fairs, has released the first condition book for the 12-day Oak Tree at Pleasanton meet that will be held June 18 through July 5. The meet will include six Thoroughbred stakes and more than $1.7 million in purses and bonuses for trainers.
His two best 3-year-olds have combined to win all their races save one, and both come off victories in important final preps for the Kentucky Derby. Yes, that outline obviously applies to American Pharoah and Dortmund, the Bob Baffert-trained duo that has dominated the talk of this year’s Derby. But it also applies to trainer Todd Pletcher’s best prospects, Carpe Diem and Materiality.
Mark Reid cut back his stable drastically in the mid-1990s, and in 2000 stopped training completely, switching his focus to the bloodstock side of the industry. At the time, he was the all-time leading trainer at Philadelphia Park and Garden State Park. But Reid has had a few starters in the last six months, running Vale Ridge in three maiden races between last October and January, and Dreaming of Andy A in four low-level claiming races in Pennsylvania since February. When Dreaming of Andy A won a $6,000 claiming race at Penn National on March 28, it gave Reid his first winner since Feb. 28, 2000. This summer, Reid will have a dozen or so horses based at Delaware Park.
An 11-race Thursday card at Churchill should provide an entertaining lead-in to the Oaks and Derby, with a pair of allowances serving as nominal features.
The field for one of the most wide-open renewals of the Kentucky Oaks in recent memory has been set, with California invader Stellar Wind being pegged as a slight program favorite in an oversubscribed lineup.
Carl Nafzger has won the Kentucky Derby twice and was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame, but he might be best known, both in racing and outside it, for one of the greatest unscripted moments in sports history, his impromptu narration to owner Frances Genter of Unbridled’s charge to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
It looks like a rematch in the offing for the Grade 3 All American at Golden Gate Fields on May 25. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer says G. G. Ryder and stablemate Summer Hit, who ran one-two in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile last weekend, will both be pointed to the one-mile All American, which will be run on the main track.
With just three wins from 29 starts, Delta Bluesman seems to lack the killer instinct, plus his lone win on dirt came over a sloppy track. Nonetheless, he looks like a serious player in a $12,500 optional-claiming race for Florida-breds that will serve as Gulfstream Park’s feature Thursday.
Wayne Catalano is just happy to be here at Churchill Downs – and not in the usual sense that the trainer of a Kentucky Oaks filly feels fortunate.
Assistant trainer Norman Casse doesn’t like using the word “mean” to describe strong-willed Derby hopeful Danzig Moon.
