DEL MAR, Calif. – Subtleties mesh with handicapping fundamentals in three California-bred races that highlight the Friday card at Del Mar.
Pedigree considerations in a pair of maiden turf sprints for 2-year-old fillies precede a condition-book clause that benefits the favorite in an allowance for filly and mare sprinters. The Friday card is a no-frills, eight-race program on the penultimate weekend of Del Mar’s five-week autumn meet.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – On a card made up of low-level claimers, Friday’s pick four at Woodbine could pay handsomely because the average field size is 10.75 horses.
Race 4: The biggest droppers in this $5,000 nonwinners-of-two route for fillies and mares – Holiday in Jail and Blackdiamond Dinny – may have the best chance.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Antonio of Venice, a three-time stakes winner last winter and spring, is set to return from a seven-month layoff in Saturday’s $125,000 Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Series.
Antonio of Venice, a 3-year-old son of Laoban, won the $500,000 Great White Way last December. After getting upset at 4-5 in the Rego Park Stakes in January, Antonio of Venice won the Damon Runyon by 9 1/4 lengths and then the Times Square division of the NYSS by 2 1/4 lengths in April.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While New York-bred juvenile fillies Shoot It True and With the Angels were impressive winning stakes at Aqueduct over the weekend, it was the maiden New York-bred colt Calling Card who may have given the “wow” performance of the young fall meet with a 17 1/4-length score in a one-mile maiden race in Sunday’s last race.
For the first time in a long time the news regarding the Churchill Downs grass course is good.
After conducting its entire September meet on dirt, allowing work done on the course during the summer to take full effect, Churchill resumed grass racing at the ongoing meet, which began Oct. 27. And despite skepticism, even internally, that the troubled course would stand up to racing, no problems have so far arisen.
Through Nov. 17, Churchill had run 19 grass races this meet, already two more than during the entire fall meeting in 2023.
After their remarkable two-day early May run for trainer Kenny McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., the 3-year-old campaigns of Thorpedo Anna, who won the Kentucky Oaks, and Mystik Dan, who captured the Kentucky Derby a day later, sharply diverged. Now, the pair is set to come together for a winter in New Orleans.
Thorpedo Anna remains in Kentucky but soon will join Derby winner Mystik Dan at Fair Grounds, with both 3-year-olds on track to race in 2025.
Having withstood damage from two storms during the summer, Tampa Bay Downs is set to open its 2024-25 meet Wednesday.
In a span of three weeks, Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit the west coast of Florida and there was significant flooding and roof damage in the barn area at Tampa, particularly from Milton.
Wootton Bassett was already a successful sire when he was purchased by the Coolmore group and moved from France to the international operation’s Irish headquarters. He has rapidly rewarded Coolmore, as his first Irish-conceived 2-year-olds on the track this year have been nothing short of sensational.
Europe’s leading juvenile sire and a top 10 general sire, Wootton Bassett is poised for continued success in international events – especially since Coolmore continues to bolster his book. The mares will include purchases made this month in Kentucky.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With turf racing done for the year on this circuit, it will be all dirt for the next four-plus months at Aqueduct. Unsurprisingly, five of the eight races carded for Thursday drew fields of seven horses or fewer.
The most interesting race Thursday looks to be the first, a one-mile maiden race for 2-year-old fillies featuring starters from many of the higher-profile barns on the grounds.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With 996 wins to his credit, trainer Mike DePaulo is closing in on a career milestone. He could creep closer to that goal when sending out Sugar Buzz, Its in the Cards, and Reggie Boy in Thursday’s fifth race at Woodbine.
Sugar Buzz should be favored in the hybrid event for Ontario-sired and $40,000 maiden 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles. A son of North America’s leading turf sire Twirling Candy, Sugar Buzz missed the board in his first two races while sprinting before finding his niche going long this fall.
