Ride On Curlin completed his major preparations for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Sunday morning, when he breezed seven furlongs in 1:26.80 at Oaklawn Park.
It has been 59 years since Art Sherman first went to the Kentucky Derby as an 18-year-old exercise rider for 1955 Derby winner Swaps. After that, he was a jockey, then a trainer, but never has he returned to the Derby. But now he has a good reason to go back, and no one is riding higher.
Back at the Big A for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial, Wicked Strong unleashed a lethal stretch run that carried him past the pacesetting Social Inclusion and all the way to Louisville for next month’s Kentucky Derby.
Our Caravan showed why trainer Michael Dilger had tried him against the cream of south Florida’s 3-year-old division this winter by drawing away to a 9 3/4-length victory over the odds-on Ring Weekend in Saturday’s $250,000 Calder Derby.
Our Caravan showed why trainer Michael Dilger had tried him against the cream of south Florida’s 3-year-old division this winter by drawing away to a 9 3/4-length victory over the odds-on Ring Weekend in Saturday’s $250,000 Calder Derby.
Thundergram will add blinkers for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby after turning in an impressive work in the equipment Saturday at Oaklawn Park. He was one of several horses tuning up for the $3.3 million Racing Festival of the South, which features nine stakes over the final week of the meet. The series closes with the Arkansas Derby on April 12.
Michael Buckley, owner of Toast of New York, the winner of the UAE Derby, told the British racing channel Racing UK on Friday that it was unlikely Toast of New York would come to the United States for the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said Danza is possible for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby and if the horse goes he would lift the projected field for the April 12 race at Oaklawn Park to eight.
California Chrome heads into the Santa Anita Derby as the best prospect on the West Coast, if not in the country, for the May 3 Kentucky Derby.
After two losses at Gulfstream Park in Florida, Wicked Strong is back in New York and back at Aqueduct, where he will run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial.
