It’s Our Time, the 17 3/4-length debut winning 2-year-old at Saratoga who finished fourth in Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct, could very well run again this year, but it won’t be in the Breeders’ Cup.
“We’re going to take it a little slower than we did after that last race,” trainer Tom Amoss said. “I foresee him running probably in Kentucky once he recovers. What kind of race, I don’t know.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The jockey John Velazquez, 53, inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2012, won three races at Keeneland’s spring meeting in April. Last October, he won six. Velazquez has put together good Keeneland meets before, but this one came somewhat out of nowhere.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. was badly hurt on Sept. 21 at Churchill Downs when his mount Sgt. Garcia broke down. Hernandez injuries: a lacerated liver, seven broken ribs, and a punctured lung. Hernandez had surgery to address internal bleeding and to insert screws and plates in his ribs.
And yet there Hernandez stood in a spiffy outfit Saturday at Keeneland, looking hale and hearty.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rhetorical, minor upset winner of the Grade 1, $1.25 million Coolmore Turf Mile, heads a considerable list of turf horses who raced at Keeneland over the weekend and – no surprise – are bound for Breeders’ Cup races.
The 2-year-old colt Outfielder passed his dirt test with a two-length allowance win going six furlongs Saturday at Keeneland. He is likely to now get a route test.
“As big as he is, we’re thinking about stretching him out,” trainer Wesley Ward said.
Ward ran Outfielder on turf early because of his size, believing the surface would be easier on him at that point in his development. The colt ran creditably, winning his debut in May at Churchill Downs and finishing fourth in the Group 1 Prix Morny, a tough assignment, in August in France.
In a stellar opening weekend at Keeneland in which he won a pair of graded stakes, trainer Brendan Walsh also opened the book on a potential star for the future.
The 2-year-old filly Bella Ballerina, a Godolphin homebred, is a half-sister to Eclipse Award champion Pretty Mischievous, winner of the 2023 Kentucky Oaks for Godolphin and Walsh. Bella Ballerina, with blinkers on for her debut going six furlongs on Sunday, drew clear by 4 1/4 lengths in the stretch, earning a 70 Beyer Speed Figure.
After sweeping Keeneland’s Grade 1 races for dirt 2-year-olds, Ted Noffey and Tommy Jo are headed back to Saratoga, where they launched their careers, to prepare for their biggest test yet, the Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
Both horses are trained by Todd Pletcher for Spendthrift Farm.
“They will head to Saratoga, where Todd has his Breeders’ Cup horses, on Monday,” Sophie Green, who is overseeing the Pletcher barn at Keeneland, said the morning after Ted Noffey won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Acoustic Ave has won three of four starts since trainer Linda Rice claimed the 5-year-old gelding for $45,000 seven months ago. The loss was a second-place finish behind Over and Ollie in a second-level allowance at Saratoga on July 4.
After clearing that allowance condition at the end of August, Acoustic Ave now meets Over and Ollie again in a conditioned allowance that serves as Aqueduct’s feature on an eight-race Thursday card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Proponents of the key race theory of handicapping should be champing at the bit to get at Sunday’s feature race at Gulfstream Park, an entry-level allowance/optional claimer restricted to Florida-bred fillies and mares carded at five furlongs over the Tapeta course.
The problem will be deciding which key race to choose from, considering four of the nine members of the lineup – Neodera, Aless Queen, Any Moment, and Popstyle – exit races from which at least two of the starters returned to win their next starts.
