The richest race on Wednesday afternoon’s nine-race card at Churchill Downs is a $148,000 allowance/optional-claiming race for older horses who have either not won a race other-than this year or are in for a claiming price of $175,000. The 1 1/16-mile race has drawn a field of just six. However, all six are stakes winners – some graded winners – providing in quality what it lacks in quantity.
Bernell Rhone said he will be retiring from training after the close of the Canterbury Park meet on Saturday. He has four starters on the card at the Minnesota track, where he is a member of the Canterbury Hall of Fame.
“I’m getting out, but I’m not leaving,” he said. “All my best friends are all on the racetrack. I think I’ll still own a horse or two. I don’t want to get out. I just want to have more free time to do some things. I want to go to the Calgary Stampede. I want to see Yellowstone again, and the Grand Canyon.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Silver Skillet will look to rebound from a fifth-place finish in last month’s Yaddo Stakes at Saratoga while attempting to turn around the fortunes of trainer Christophe Clement’s frustrating Belmont at the Big A fall meet when she starts as the potential favorite in Thursday’s $125,000 John Hettinger Stakes for New York-bred females.
Sunlit Song, who has run in the last four editions of the Remington Green, will miss Sunday’s renewal because he is getting some time off, according to trainer Mindy Willis.
Sunlit Song has won the Remington Green twice, in 2020 and 2023. He was second in the race in both 2021 and 2022.
Sunlit Song is the reigning Texas-bred of the year and overall has won 18 races from 45 starts for earnings of $757,520. The 9-year-old gelding races for Carolyn Barnett and Becky Harding.
White Abarrio, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, breezed three furlongs in 39.22 seconds Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track in Saratoga, his first timed workout since he was returned to trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. in June.
“It went well, the track was on the slower side – real slow,” Joseph said. “It was his first work back, I was very happy with it.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Eight first-time starters will line up against second-out runner Temple Hall in Thursday’s fifth race at Woodbine. The experience edge that he has on his rivals is significant, but the diminutive gelding is certainly no cinch in the six-furlong maiden special for 2-year-olds.
Trained by Cary Brooks, Temple Hall had worked nicely heading into his debut in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden special on Aug. 25. Sent off at 18-1, he made the lead before fading gradually in the final furlong to finish five lengths back in fourth while earning a 62 Beyer Speed Figure.
Curlin and Gun Runner have much in common – both were Horse of the Year honorees while trained by Steve Asmussen, are now in the Hall of Fame, and have emerged as classic sires. They were in lockstep this month as they emerged as the leading sires of the Keeneland September yearling sale.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Astronomer was less than two lengths from winning two stakes in one-mile turf races at the Del Mar summer meeting. The close finishes give trainer Simon Callaghan the expectation that Astronomer could produce a surprise result in Saturday’s Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita.
After finishing second by 1 1/4 lengths in the restricted Wickerr Stakes on July 21, Astronomer was third by a half-length in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 31.
“His last two races have been his best two races,” Callaghan said. “He’s kind of knocking on the door.”
Rebel’s Romance is scheduled to start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 2 at Del Mar for the second time after a win in Sunday’s Group 1 Preis Von Europa in Cologne, Germany.
Rebel’s Romance won the 2022 BC Turf at Keeneland, but did not start in the race at Santa Anita last year. Should Rebel’s Romance win the BC Turf later this fall, he would become the first two-time winner in non-consecutive years of a race first run in 1984.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Showcase, unbeaten in two starts, including a victory in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, will miss the major races in the 2-year-old division for the fall, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Pletcher said Showcase has “a non-surgical issue” that has put him out of training. Pletcher said Showcase, a son of Uncle Mo, could be back in training by the end of the year.
