Duramente won the first stakes of his career in Sunday’s $1,700,824 Japanese 2000 Guineas at Nakayama Racecourse, giving international jockey Mirco Demuro his first Grade 1 win in Japan since he began riding regularly in the country last month.
U S Marshal notched his first stakes under an astute ride from David Moran in Sunday’s $102,800 Wando Stakes at Woodbine.
Aztec Brave helped make trainer Joe Sharp a winner in his debut on the New York Racing Association circuit, taking Sunday’s $100,000 Danger’s Hour at Aqueduct by 1 1/4 lengths.
Handle figures at racetracks throughout California were down 7 percent in March, pushing the year-to-date data into negative territory for the first time this year, according to a report delivered April 16 at the California Horse Racing Board at Golden Gate Fields.
The connections of Wonder Gal still would like to run in the $1 million Kentucky Oaks but understand they will need a lot of help to get in.
Papacoolpapacool extended his winning streak to three races in Saturday’s $79,750 La Puente Stakes, a victory that will lead to a start in the $500,000 Penn Mile for 3-year-olds on turf at Penn National on May 30.
Queen of the Sand, who won the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Handicap on Saturday, will run next in the Grade 1, $300,000 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares May 25.
Diversy Harbor was transported to the Alamo Pintado Equine Clinic in Los Olivos, Calif., on Sunday morning, a day after she was pulled up with sesamoid injuries in the $151,000 Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita.
That the Illinois Derby no longer is a true prep for any Triple Crown race, much less the Kentucky Derby, was emphasized this weekend by the fact that neither the winner of Saturday’s race, Whiskey Ticket, nor the horse he nosed out in victory, Conquest Curlinate, is nominated to the Triple Crown.
The first fallout from the injury to One Lucky Dane occurred on Sunday, when Keith Brackpool, a co-owner of Bolo, announced via Twitter that Rafael Bejarano would ride Bolo in the Kentucky Derby on May 2, the first of several jockey assignments that are expected to be made in the next 48 hours.
