LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland April horses of racing age sale is set to take place Sunday evening, with a slight date shift from last year’s edition.
Last year’s April sale was held on a Friday night, following the final card of Keeneland’s spring race meet. This year, the single-session sale will instead take place on Sunday, beginning at 4 p.m. Keeneland closed its spring meet Friday, while Churchill Downs opened its spring meet with a Saturday night card.
Rosie’s Halo and Dreamster look like the main players in a first-level allowance race with a $25,000 claiming option that serves as the feature Sunday at Gulfstream Park. The one-mile race on the main track for fillies and mares drew nine horses and goes as race 9 on a 10-race program that begins at 12:40 p.m.
The dark bay foal’s white markings were distinctive, so much so that he was nicknamed “Gaudy” by the farm staff. But his personality didn’t match the moniker at first.
“He was somewhat shy when he was with his mother,” breeder Amy Moore recalled of the youngster at her South Gate Farm in Virginia. “He’d hide behind her in the stall.”
But now? Forte has come into his own.
“He’s gained his confidence,” trainer Todd Pletcher said of Forte, the Kentucky Derby favorite. “He’s proud of himself, as he should be.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Chris Hartman has won 36 races this meet at Oaklawn Park and after every single victory his owners have donated funds to the care of retired Thoroughbreds. He’s hoping there’s reason to do so again on Sunday with All West.
All West is a chief contender in the featured eighth race, a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up over 1 1/8 miles. He faces eight others, including Mystic Night, who is cutting back in distance from 1 1/2 miles, and Mamzooj, who is bred to appreciate Sunday’s added distance.
After taking a well-earned shot and running respectably well in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap three weeks ago, Today’s Flavor drops back in with New York-breds in Sunday’s $100,000 Affirmed Success Stakes, the closing-day feature at the Aqueduct spring meet.
Today’s Flavor strung together four consecutive wins – three in statebred company – by a combined 27 lengths from November through February, which led to the 5-year-old gelding by Laoban running in the Carter.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A supplemented runner rarely goes off favored in a stakes at Woodbine, but that should be the case with the unbeaten shipper New York Thunder in Sunday’s $125,000 Woodstock, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds.
New York Thunder made both of his starts at Gulfstream for trainer Jorge Delgado. The son of Nyquist aired on the front in his Nov. 27 debut in a five-furlong maiden special on Tapeta, scoring by 6 1/2 lengths with a 93 Beyer Speed Figure, easily the highest speed figure in the Woodstock field.
Churchill Downs
Thursday, April 27
Weather: Clear
Temp: 53°
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ten potential Kentucky Oaks fillies worked within about a 12-minute window following the first renovation break on a somber Thursday morning at Churchill Downs after Kentucky Derby contender Wild On Ice suffered a catastrophic injury to his left hind leg while pulling up after a work shortly after the track opened at 5:15 a.m. Wild On Ice was later euthanized.
Any hope for a start in the Kentucky Derby on May 6 ended for Chase the Chaos with a last-place finish in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 4.
An appearance in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 20 remains a possibility, pending the outcome of Saturday’s $100,000 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields.
Chase the Chaos earned a berth in the Preakness with a win in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields in February. Golden Gate Fields and Pimilco are owned by 1/ST Racing.
Surprisingly heads a strong field of fillies and mares in Saturday’s Dahlia Stakes on the Laurel Park turf.
The one-mile Dahlia is one of five $100,000 stakes on the card for 3-year-olds and up along with the Native Dancer at 1 1/8 miles, the King T. Leatherbury at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, the Primonetta for fillies and mares at six furlongs, and the Henry S. Clark at one mile on turf.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Lovely Ride will face opposing speed when she goes for her third stakes win of the Oaklawn Park meet Saturday in the $150,000 Dig A Diamond, but the potential race flow will not alter the tactics that have lifted her to wins in the Mistletoe and Pippin.
“There’s lots of speed on the inside of her, but at the same time we’re not changing our strategy,” said Robertino Diodoro, Oaklawn’s leading trainer. “We’ll make the best of it, see what happens.”
