The Kentucky Derby preps are to the Kentucky Derby as the National Hockey League regular season is to the NHL playoffs. It is a months-long grind that began last fall, it ends on Saturday, and it involves quite a bit of scoreboard watching to see who’s in and who’s out.
Two horses euthanized at Turf Paradise in Phoenix during the past six months tested positive for a drug used to treat attention-deficit disorder in humans that has been traced to contamination of the injections used to put the horses down, according to a racing official with knowledge of an ongoing investigation into the results.
The start of the 2015 season for the two-time champion Beholder is the same as her 2014 campaign. Now 5, Beholder has been supplemented to Friday’s $75,000 Santa Lucia Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita, a restricted race at 1 1/16 miles on dirt and a race she won last year.
Horses to watch from Pocono Downs.
The 2014-15 championship meet officially ended on Sunday with Javier Castellano once again running away with the jockeys title and Todd Pletcher continuing his amazing streak with his 12th consecutive training crown.
He’s a 6-year-old stakes winner with earnings of $327,238, and yet Spirit Rules still has something to prove when he makes his graded stakes debut in Saturday’s $200,000 Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita.
Bayern, unraced since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November, will have his 2015 debut at Churchill Downs the first weekend of May, most likely in the $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard May 2
California Chrome, second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 28, is scheduled to resume training this weekend in Newmarket, England, in advance of a spring campaign in that country.
Conquest Two Step, the winner of Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 31, was euthanized Monday after suffering complications following surgery for an injured hind leg, trainer Mark Casse said Thursday.
Danzig Moon, second in the Blue Grass, and Tencendur, second in the Wood Memorial, both secured spots in the May 2 Kentucky Derby by virtue of the 40 points they earned last Saturday.
