Buff Bradley has had lightning strike twice in his 22-year training career with $2.1-million-earner Brass Hat and two-time champion Groupie Doll. No one is suggesting a 3-year-old colt named Divisidero is about to follow in their footsteps, but a rallying triumph by the 3-year-old Kitten’s Joy colt in his career debut here Saturday “sure was impressive,” Bradley said.
Harlington’s Rose became a stakes winner in her 18th start in the minor Kalookan Queen Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 28. Trainer Steve Knapp has the goal of making the 4-year-old filly a graded stakes winner this spring, which is why he scratched Harlington’s Rose from the minor Wishing Well Stakes on turf last Sunday in favor of an optional claimer at six furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita on Thursday.
Mark Casse had been resigned to missing the Kentucky Derby chase this year. But at least one promising colt has him thinking he might have a shot to make the May 2 Derby after all.
Mondays often are busy workout days in the Steve Asmussen barn, and Feb. 9 at Fair Grounds was no exception, as Asmussen sent all his best Fair Grounds-based stock through timed drills.
The Maryland Racing Commission has suspended Jerry Thurston, a journeyman trainer, for 30 days after a horse he trained tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid stanozolol following a mid-December race, according to commission records.
When Holy Lute crossed the finish line in first-place in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on Jan. 17, a sense of dread overcame trainer Jim Cassidy. Holy Lute had drifted out in the stretch. After a review, the stewards disqualified Holy Lute from first and placed him second.
Baryshnikov, a Grade 2-placed stakes-winning stallion, was purchased by Blaine Davidson for $7,000 on Monday at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale to stand privately at his Terre Haute, Ind., farm.
Eight days later than scheduled, multiple stakes winners Saratoga Snacks and Readtheprospectus are scheduled to return to action in a salty New York-bred allowance race Thursday at Aqueduct. The one-mile race was originally scheduled for Feb. 4 but postponed when that card was canceled. The forecast for Thursday calls for a possible 1 to 3 inches of snow, so there is no guarantee this card will be held either.
Daniel J. Doocy, who served as thoroughbred racing secretary at Prairie Meadows from 2003-2011, died Sunday in a hospital Omaha from complications with his liver and kidneys.
The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale continued to come down from the highs of the Eugene Melnyk dispersal in 2013, trending downward across the board.
