OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After spending last winter riding at Gulfstream Park, where he did pretty well, jockey Dylan Davis will stay in New York this upcoming winter.
Davis said he will do what many other riders do during the winter, which is fly down to Gulfstream as needed. Despite missing the first month of Gulfstream Park’s winter meet, Davis won 38 races – good enough for seventh in the standings – and his horses earned $2.38 million.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer George Weaver, who has handled a number of solid turf sprinters in recent years, sent out another one as Johnny’s Red Storm was a two-length front-running winner of the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint on Aug. 31. Rallying for third in his first start in the United States was his new stablemate Azizam.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Igniter, a one-length winner of a one-mile allowance race at Aqueduct on Sept. 27, will make his next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes here on Dec. 6, trainer Rick Dutrow said this week.
“I think he wants to go two turns, that’s what we think he’s looking for,” said Dutrow, who trains Igniter for Three Chimneys Farm. “I think giving him time is going to help him run bigger that day.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Beach Bomb strung together four solid races during the winter and spring that indicated she could be a significant player in the older filly and mare turf division this year.
Then came her last two outings. Dull efforts in the Grade 2 Beverly D. at Colonial Downs in August and the Grade 3 Ladies Marathon at Kentucky Downs in September have left trainer Graham Motion a bit confused.
Weekend stakes options for the 2-year-old filly Scratch It focused on Saturday’s Miss Grillo Stakes at Aqueduct or Sunday’s Grade 3 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita.
The $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at a mile was selected, a chance for Scratch It to take a more prominent position in the nation’s juvenile filly turf division. With Scratch It based at Saratoga, it didn’t hurt that a recent flight to California was available from Newark, N.J.
“This gives her the best chance to win a stakes,” trainer Brad Cox said Friday.
Sushi Man will be looking to win his third derby of the year on Sunday when he returns to the straight 3-year-old ranks for the $150,000 Hawthorne Derby. The 1 1/8-mile turf race drew a field of eight that includes Anegada, who was cross-entered in a Keeneland allowance Saturday, and the Grade 3-placed Maui Strong, who was an also-eligible in the same race in Kentucky.
There are three major-market sales companies in the United States – Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland, and the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland have both posted record returns in a strong yearling market that began in July.
The French import Caro Buono had a decent introduction to American racing, closing with interest to finish fourth by three lengths in the Grade 3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf at a mile on Sept. 7.
Caro Buono is back in action in Sunday’s Grade 3 Zuma Beach Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf at Santa Anita, a race that will determine whether he belongs in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar. There are indications Caro Buono has settled into a favorable routine in recent weeks, according to trainer Leonard Powell.
Through the late spring and summer, the 3-year-old Irish-bred filly Wemightakedthelongway was beaten in three Group 1 races in England and Ireland, finishing second once and fourth twice.
Conveniently, the winners of those races – the fillies Minnie Hauk and Whirl, both trained by Aidan O’Brien – will not pester Wemightakedlongway in her next assignment, Sunday’s Group 1 Prix de l’Opera for fillies and mares at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris.
Not long ago, 3-year-old fillies were winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe so frequently – four times between 2008 and 2017 – that people talked about changing the Arc weights to lessen the advantage conferred to that set of horses. Then they stopped winning: Enable in 2017 was the last.
