Impressive debut winner Boomcchero looks like the one to beat in a first-level allowance race for Florida-breds on Friday at Gulfstream Park. The 5 1/2-furlong dash on Tapeta goes as race 6 on the eight-race card.
Trained by Ronald Coy, Boomcchero showed a lot of promise in his April 13 debut in a $50,000 optional maiden claimer on Tapeta. With Jesus Rios aboard, he broke inward from the inside post and brushed the starting gate in the 5 1/2-furlong sprint.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The highs and lows of Kentucky Derby weekend behind him, trainer Chad Brown is now zeroing in on the four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga where it looks like he will be loaded for many of the 23 stakes being offered from June 6-9.
Of course, he already announced that Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone is targeting the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 8. But, wait, there’s more.
Multiple-time Ohio-bred champion Candlelight Hours is the defending winner of the J. William Petro Memorial Stakes. The mare looks to be in fine form as she seeks a repeat in Thursday’s $75,000 stakes for Ohio-bred fillies and mares at Thistledown.
Candlelight Hours, who races as a homebred for Elkhorn Oaks and who is trained by James Jackson, brings a 24-10-7-6 record into the 1 1/16-mile race and has earned more than $500,000. But perhaps more important than her consistency is her recency; she is the only runner in the field of seven coming into the race off a win.
Conditions could be ripe for Ouster in Thursday’s multi-conditioned, $105,000 allowance feature scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the main track.
Rain is in the forecast Wednesday and Thursday and Ouster is 2 for 2 in the slop, both in races run around two turns. In January of 2023, Ouster defeated New York-bred allowance company going 1 1/8 miles by 5 1/2 lengths in the slop.
Bob Baffert wants the lead-up to the $2 million Preakness to be about Kenny McPeek, the trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan.
“He’s the man of the hour and he should be,” said Baffert, while also acknowledging McPeek’s victory in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks with Thorpedo Anna. “It’s all about McPeek.”
When it comes to the Preakness, however, it’s typically all about Bob. Last year, Baffert won his record eighth Preakness when National Treasure fended off Blazing Sevens to win the middle jewel of the Triple Crown by a head.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Friday’s eight-race program at Santa Anita has a carryover of $104,580 in the $1 pick six.
The bet proved too difficult on Sunday when Visually ($36), Squalotoro ($30.20), and Vitalera ($61.80) won the seventh through ninth races on a 10-race program.
The carryover was clinched after Vitalera’s win.
On Friday, the pick six covers the third through eighth races, which have fields of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, and 7.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stronghold is unlikely to race at 1 1/4 miles in the foreseeable future after finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said Sunday that Stronghold will resume racing this summer. A race goal has not been selected.
“We’ll freshen him up a little bit,” D’Amato said.
“He came out of the race 100 percent. I think he’s got lots of opportunities. He needs his distance, maybe a mile and a sixteenth or a mile and an eighth.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The invitation is tempting. The details, however, are daunting.
With a win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita, the 7-year-old gelding Gold Phoenix earned a berth in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park, near London, on July 6.
The $752,000 Eclipse Stakes is one of Britain’s leading races at 1 1/4 miles. With its prize money and prestige, the race annually draws a terrific field, one that left trainer Phil D’Amato on Sunday thinking more about a domestic campaign than an international trip for Gold Phoenix.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Thorpedo Anna dominated last Friday’s Kentucky Oaks as the second betting choice, leading all the way and splashing clear to a 4 3/4-length victory. But in some ways, the filly was the biggest of longshots. Her mere existence is a credit to breeder and co-owner Judy Hicks, as Thorpedo Anna’s dam, Sataves, had a premature and troubled start to life and required painstaking care.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna and runner-up Just F Y I emerged from their respective efforts in good order and could meet again in some of the major Grade 1 races for their division this summer at Saratoga.
Trainer Kenny McPeek said Thorpedo Anna, who pulled away from Just F Y I late to complete a wire-to-wire, 4 3/4-length victory in the Oaks on a sloppy, sealed track, was “a little tired” from her effort, but in good shape. After leaving a bit of feed on Friday night after the race, the filly bounced right back Saturday.
