ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Fortyfiveseventy brings improving form to Thursday’s Woodbine feature, a 7 1/2-furlong inner turf event for nonwinners-of-three Ontario-sired allowance types and $40,000 claimers.
Fortyfiveseventy competed in two-thirds of the 2023 Canadian Triple Tiara, a series for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies. She checked in third behind Elysian Field and Wickenheiser in the Woodbine Oaks before ending up fifth in the Bison City Stakes, both Tapeta routes.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Phil D’Amato’s stable was as hot as the Southern California weather for the final two weekends of the Del Mar meeting that ended on Sunday.
On Aug. 31, D’Amato won three graded stakes on the same day for the first time in his career. Last Saturday, D’Amato won three races, including two stakes, and watched Vodka With a Twist lose a photo finish to Tenma in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.
“I was a nose away,” D’Amato said of another day with three stakes win.
We’ll hear talk the next two months regarding the Ireland-based 3-year-old colt City of Troy’s attempt to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November. But first, on Wednesday, it’s the Ireland-based 3-year-old filly Siege of Troy who will try to win the Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs.
James “Sweet” Hodges, a longtime trainer based at Louisiana Downs, died Thursday of a heart-related issue at the age of 87, track chaplain Jimmy Sistrunk confirmed.
Sistrunk said services are set for Tuesday at Hill Crest Funeral Home in Haughton, La., which is near Louisiana Downs. There is a visitation from 1-2 p.m. Central, with the funeral to follow at 2 p.m. Sistrunk will be officiating. He is close friends with Hodges and his wife, Phyllis.
Horses who last raced in Illinois, Kentucky, New York, and Virginia are coming together for the $250,000 Super Derby on Saturday at Louisiana Downs.
The meet’s richest race drew a field of 11 and will be showcased on a nine-race card that begins at 3:05 p.m. Central.
“I’m proud of the card we have, an excellent nine races, and the Super Derby improved from last year,” said Matt Crawford, director of racing for Louisiana Downs. “We’re proud of the field size and the quality.”
We tend to glorify route horses over sprinters, but of three 2-year-old stakes Sunday at Kentucky Downs, the Untapable, the lone sprint, is the best of them.
Fifteen were entered and a dozen can run in the Untapable, contested over 6 1/2 furlongs and filled with fillies of promise.
Pace players pack the race, but Ultima Grace, drawn in post 2 with John Velazquez riding for Wesley Ward, might prove the quickest of them.
“I’d say between me and Johnny V, she’s going to be forwardly placed,” said Ward, whose 2-year-olds often gain an advantage with sharp breaks.
One should always give special consideration to a speed horse entered in the Presious Passion Stakes.
Presious Passion during his heyday in 2008 and 2009 was a front-running monster in long-distance turf races. He won the United Nations at Monmouth Park twice, and in 2009 set a breakneck pace and finished second behind Conduit in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
The $100,000 race that bears his name comes around again Sunday at Monmouth, appropriately carded for 1 1/2 miles on grass – a long race on the third-to-last card of a long race meeting.
It does not take a handicapper or horseman long to figure out that Kentucky Downs is not for every horse. Sometimes form from more traditional racecourses carries over. Often it does not.
“I don’t really try to guess who’s going to like it,” said trainer Cherie DeVaux. “You point for a race and hope they do. It’s kind of flippant to say wait and see, but all you can do is wait and see.”
DeVaux has the 3-year-old Brilliant Berti in the $1.5 million Gun Runner Stakes on Sunday. And if Brilliant Berti enjoys his first spin around Kentucky Downs, he’ll win.
Mucino, the 4-year-old gelding trained by Doug O’Neill, could not have more of an away game than he does in his appearance in Sunday’s $50,000 Humboldt County Marathon Handicap in Ferndale, Calif.
Mucino has been based at Del Mar this summer, and must be vanned more than 730 miles to Ferndale. Mucino is part of a full field of eight, that includes the last three winners – Honos Man, Mount Pelliar, and Lord Wimborne.
The strategy will be simple with Okay Fine when she breaks from the rail in Sunday’s featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park.
“She goes to the lead,” said trainer Carlos David. “That’s the plan.”
The first-level allowance for fillies and mares will be run over 1 1/16 miles on turf. It has a $25,000 claiming option.
The race drew 10, including Towser, the runner-up in the $75,000 Monroe when last seen on turf at Gulfstream, and Burnaway, who moves into open company off a first-level allowance win over Florida-breds.
