Proctor's Ledge destined for Just a Game
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Brendan Walsh said that Proctor’s Ledge, winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile on the Derby undercard, likely will make her next start in the Grade 1 Just a Game on the June 9 Belmont Stakes undercard, with the Diana at Saratoga being a longer-term objective.
Walsh also reaffirmed that Beckford, winner of the opening-night William Walker, will run next in the Group 1 Commonwealth on June 22 at Royal Ascot. Killay, a sharp allowance winner on the May 4 Kentucky Oaks undercard, likely will run back in another allowance, said Walsh.
Camacho gets three days
Starting Saturday, jockey Samuel Camacho Jr. will serve a three-day suspension handed him by the Churchill stewards for causing severe crowding aboard Ivy’s College Fund in the third race here last Saturday. The incident forced Corey Lanerie, riding Arcelor, to take up very sharply along the rail.
Ivy’s College Fund was disqualified from first to third, while Arcelor was elevated from third to second. Compose, otherwise uninvolved, was kissed in for the victory.
Lanerie rode five other winners on the card and may well have been denied a sixth when Arcelor lost all her momentum.
Patterson with first starter
Jenn Patterson, a longtime exercise rider and assistant under top trainers Shug McGaughey and Charlie LoPresti, will have the first starter of her training career when she saddles Sports Story in the sixth race here Thursday evening.
Patterson, who grew up in Delaware, worked closely with such stars as Orb and Wise Dan prior to announcing last month she was opening a public stable.
Sports Story, an unraced 4-year-old colt by Tale of the Cat, is owned by Harry Rosenblum.
2012 star in action Thursday
Circle Unbroken, who won the Bashford Manor Stakes here nearly six years ago, is back in the entries, in for a $5,000 claiming tag in the last race Thursday.
This will be the 31st start for Circle Unbroken, an 8-year-old Florida-bred gelding with earnings of $195,716. Trained from the outset by Garry Simms until being claimed here last fall for $16,000, Circle Unbroken won the Bashford Manor in his second start on June 30, 2012.
◗ Probable starters for the Grade 3, $100,000 Louisville Handicap on Saturday include at least two for Mike Maker, who trains nine of the 22 older horses nominated to the 1 1/2-mile turf race. Entries for the Louisville, the lone stakes here this weekend, were to be drawn Wednesday.
◗ Eskimo Kisses, a solid fourth in the Kentucky Oaks after finishing second in the Grade 1 Ashland, is getting a short break and will be pointed to major races such as the Coaching Club American Oaks or Alabama, trainer Kenny McPeek said.
◗ The composition of the horse population in the Churchill stable area has undergone its usual post-Derby turnover, according to track stall superintendent Steve Hargrave. About 75 to 100 horses have moved in, taking the place of those that departed after the Derby.
