HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like people, most horses also tend to slow down the older they get. One exception to that rule is the ageless Bluefield, who had the best year of her career as a 7-year-old in 2023 and ran the best race of her life shortly after turning 8 earlier this year.
BALTIMORE – D. Wayne Lukas still remembers coming through the Pimlico stable gate the morning after Codex defeated the Kentucky Derby-winning filly Genuine Risk in the 1980 Preakness and being handed a bag of mail from the security guard.
“I’m feeling pretty good, just won my first classic. He says, ‘Wow, you got a bag of mail, lot of telegrams came in overnight’ and he gives me the mailbag,” Lukas recalled Monday morning at Pimlico. “I sit down in the tack room, [former Daily Racing Form executive columnist] Joe Hirsch sits down there and I start to open them.
Can history repeat itself? That’s one question for Santa Anita Derby runner-up Imagination in the Preakness Stakes. The colt races for many of the same connections as last year’s Preakness winner, National Treasure, and is from the same extended female family as that colt – one that has had a great deal of success throughout racing history.
Uncle Mo is, in less than a decade with runners on the track, already an accomplished classic influence as the sire of Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal. With his progeny continuing to produce runners who excel in the second generation, he added another accomplishment to his résumé as the broodmare sire of recent Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna. He has a chance to continue building his reputation in that regard with Muth, one of the favorites for the Preakness Stakes.
There’s much to be unsure about in the Caesars Handicap, one of two $150,000 turf miles Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis. But this much is certain: If Depiction is close to his 20-1 morning-line odds, he’s worth a bet.
Unfortunately, Depiction figures half that price at best. He’s one of nine 3-year-olds in the Caesars, designated as a handicap to skirt a ban on Lasix in stakes races at participating North American tracks. The weight spread among the entrants is minimal.
Mugatu was foaled in Kentucky and trains at Belterra Park in Ohio. But in some ways, he’ll be coming home when he runs in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. The colt was conceived in Maryland, as he is sired by Blofeld, a prominent young sire in the state who stands at Murmur Farm in Darlington.
A popular bonus system designed to lure horses from other states or countries to race at the Del Mar summer meeting will have smaller payoffs for some horses at the track’s forthcoming season from July 20 to Sept. 8.
Horses who have not raced in California in the last 12 months, and did not have their previous starts in California, will be eligible for a 40 percent bonus for purses earned in overnight races through the meeting. Horses that meet that criteria and start no more than twice at Santa Anita in May or June also are eligible.
First-time starters are excluded.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Two Rivers Over, winner of the Group 2 Godolphin Mile on dirt in Dubai in March, will resume his 2024 season in the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile on May 27 at Lone Star Park, co-owner Ty Leatherman said Sunday.
Two Rivers Over was being considered for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap on June 8 at Saratoga, but Leatherman said the $400,000 Sexton Mile has greater appeal from a competitive standpoint.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though she has found the winner’s circle just once in 15 starts, Foxy Cara has rarely failed to put forth an honest effort, finishing in the money in 11 of those starts.
Given the proper pace scenario and the right field, Foxy Cara could find the winner’s circle again Thursday in a six-furlong first-level allowance for New York-bred females that serves as the feature on a pedestrian eight-race card at Aqueduct.
