Trainer Brendan Walsh will have three chances to win his fourth graded stakes of the Keeneland fall meet in the Grade 3, $350,000 Dowager on Sunday.
Opposing the Walsh trio in the Dowager, a 1 1/2-mile grass race for older fillies and mares, are two horses from the barn of trainer Joe Sharp, including Miwa, who would be favored if sufficient weight is given to her two races at Kentucky Downs in late August and early September.
Prior to heading to Del Mar, Grade 1 winner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies candidate Iron Orchard has sold for $2.5 million in a Fasig-Tipton digital flash sale.
Following six days of bidding that closed Thursday night, Iron Orchard was purchased by KatieRich Farms as a racing prospect and presumably a future addition to its commercial broodmare band. The filly was consigned by her trainer, Danny Gargan, as agent, and she will remain with that trainer.
Stalwart sire Medaglia d’Oro has been pensioned, Darley revealed in announcing its stallion roster for the upcoming season. The 26-year-old son of El Prado will retire at the Lexington, Ky., farm.
Medaglia d’Oro won three Grade 1 races, placed in another six, and earned more than $5.7 million. He is the sire of 104 graded/group stakes winners worldwide. Those include a record three winners of the Kentucky Oaks – Rachel Alexandra (2009), Plum Pretty (2011), and Good Cheer this year.
Trainer Rob Atras is still looking for the perfect spot to enter Film Star, but without such a race on the horizon, the $75,000 M.P. Ballezzi Appreciation Mile at Parx Racing on Tuesday will have to do.
“Ideally, you’d run back in New York, but there just wasn’t quite that race,” Atras said. “It really wasn’t there, so this was kind of a secondary thing, and it filled. It looks like a good spot. He’s trained well lately and he’s coming to the race good.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After a failed dirt experiment and some time off for bone bruising, Aussie Girl returns to the races and to turf in a seemingly wide-open renewal of the $150,000 Noble Damsel Stakes on Sunday at Aqueduct.
In three turf starts in the United States in 2024, Aussie Girl sandwiched a third-level allowance win at Keeneland between a sixth in the Ladies Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs and a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar
ARCADIA, Calif. – Small fields and short prices are recurring traits of the $85,000 Anoakia Stakes, a sprint for 2-year-old fillies that is run annually each fall at Santa Anita.
Only five runners are entered Sunday in the Anoakia. Unfortunately, that is normal. Average field size in the Anoakia is 5.25 since Santa Anita reinstalled dirt in late 2010. Another characteristic is the reliability of chalk. Anoakia favorites have won six of the last 10, including the last three.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Bill Tharrenos has taken a strength-in-numbers approach to Sunday’s pair of $100,000 Ontario-sired stakes for 2-year-olds over seven furlongs at Woodbine. He entered the trio of Silver Is Best, Big Bold and First, and Bank On Big Winner in the Frost King, and has Zabarta and Cayenne Kiss in the South Ocean.
Silver Is Best graduated second time out by 5 1/4 lengths while earning a solid 76 Beyer Speed Figure in July. He came up empty in the Simcoe Stakes before taking the Bull Page Stakes for Ontario-sired stock with just a 53 Beyer on Sept. 14.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – This week’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale brings the curtain down on what has been a strong North American yearling season while looking for an encore to its own star turn last year.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Strategic Risk will return to the scene of his finest hour, a one-sided maiden victory in his career debut in early June, when taking on 10 other Florida-sired 2-year-olds in Saturday’s $150,000 Affirmed Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The seven-furlong Affirmed is the middle leg of the open division of the Florida Sire Series and shares top billing on an outstanding card with its filly counterpart, the $150,000 Susan’s Girl.
Disco Time has won stakes in Illinois and Louisiana and might soon land on the East Coast.
The unbeaten 3-year-old could be headed to New York next month for the $200,000 Dwyer at Aqueduct on Nov. 8, according to his trainer, Brad Cox.
Disco Time, who is based in Kentucky, has come under consideration for the one-mile race following his win in the $250,000 St. Louis Derby on Sept. 19 at Fairmount Park.
