LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s no surprise that Keeneland-based trainer Wesley Ward has multiple 2-year-olds to van down the highway to Churchill Downs for Thursday’s $250,000 Kentucky Juvenile. In typical fashion, he dominated the 2-year-old races at the recently concluded Keeneland spring meet, winning five of the 10 offered. No other trainer won more than one.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The waiting is the hardest part.
The connections of Baeza will be waiting to hear if there is a defection from the Kentucky Derby between now and scratch time – 9 a.m. Friday – to learn if their horse gets to run in the $5 million classic at Churchill Downs.
The Belmont at the Big A spring/summer meet will be a show performed in four acts.
Act I: Beginning Thursday and running through May 26, there will be 16 cards of racing (Thursdays through Sundays) at Aqueduct. There will be 13 stakes, nine of which are graded. The May 10 card is topped by the Grade 2, $400,000 Man o’ War and Grade 3 Peter Pan, the latter a potential stepping-stone to the Belmont Stakes.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Neither of the two horses who beat him in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, nor any of those just behind him, will keep Governor Sam from winning his 3-year-old debut Wednesday at Churchill Downs in the $300,000 William Walker Stakes.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – All due respect to the Kentucky Derby horses who have come to town looking to enter the history books this week, but Bango is Mr. Churchill Downs. The winningest horse in the track’s recorded history looks to extend his record when he makes another appearance in the $200,000 St. Matthews Overnight Stakes for older sprinters on Thursday.
“He is 8 years old, and you wouldn’t know it by looking at him,” said Greg Foley, who has trained Bango throughout his career for Fred and Debbie Schwartz’s Tamaroak Stable. “He’s got dapples like apples all over him.”
Microshare ownership groups have taken a huge turn in the spotlight in recent Triple Crown seasons, allowing racing fans to experience the thrill of major-event ownership for a nominal cost.
MyRacehorse had pieces of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic and 2024 Preakness winner Seize the Grey, while Commonwealth was part of the ownership team behind 2023 Derby winner Mage.
Vekoma claimed the 2024 freshman sire title in a photo finish. Now, his first-crop daughter Five G is bringing some of his connections back to the big stage.
New York-bred Five G was a game second in the Grade 3 Honeybee Stakes, then won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks to emphatically punch her ticket to the Kentucky Oaks. The filly, trained like her sire by George Weaver, races as a homebred for Gatsas Stables. Gatsas co-owned Vekoma with R.A. Hill Stable during his racing career.
Into Mischief has already firmly written himself into the history of the American stallion ranks, with his six consecutive sire titles the most in more than a half-century. Now, he is looking to write another chapter as the first stallion since the 1950s to sire three Kentucky Derby winners, which would tie him for the all-time record.
