Wonder Gal, Sweet Reason work toward Kentucky stakes
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.
David GreningApr 19, 2015
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.
Only five potential Kentucky Derby starters galloped here at Churchill Downs on a bleary Sunday morning which featured intermittent showers and a racetrack downgraded from fast to sloppy following the renovation break.
HOME RUN KITTEN (#2, ML 5-2) returns to what may be his best game – sprinting on this hillside course. Oh, he can route just fine as proven by those last 3 sharp efforts at a mile (2nd in a Grade 2, 3rd in a Grade 2, 3rd in a Grade 1) but he’s 2 for 3 on this hillside course and should get the right kind of hot pace to bolster his last run.
The multiple Grade 3 stakes-winning El Kabeir demonstrated his fitness and energy levels were very strong during a five-furlong work timed in 1:00.15 Sunday morning over Belmont Park’s main track.
Shared Belief, pulled up by jockey Mike Smith in the early stages of Saturday’s Grade 2 Charles Town Classic, may have an issue in his right hind end but otherwise appeared sound, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Sunday morning.