Maybe it’s the Californian who can win the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile on Saturday at Keeneland.
Bowies Hero got stuck behind a wall of horses Aug. 18 in the Del Mar Mile, jockey Flavien Prat sitting helplessly with nowhere to go the last furlong.
“Flavien jumped off and first thing he said to me was, ‘Sorry, I followed the wrong horse and should’ve just gone outside,’ ” said Southern California-based trainer Phil D’Amato, who won two grass races at Keeneland during the spring meet.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After Bricks and Mortar, perhaps the most consistent runner in the older male turf division is Zulu Alpha.
From seven starts in 2019, Zulu Alpha has three stakes wins and three losses by one length or less. It is his consistency and proficiency at 1 1/2 miles that may give him an edge in a seemingly wide-open renewal of Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Joe Hirsch Classic at Belmont Park. The Joe Hirsch is named for the long-time Daily Racing Form executive columnist who died in 2009.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A pair of high-profile 3-year-olds meet for the first time Saturday at Santa Anita – a former Kentucky Derby favorite and an East Coast speedball both trying to earn a ticket to the Breeders’ Cup.
Omaha Beach returns from a six-month layoff and Shancelot makes his first start in California in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs.
Six furlongs? Omaha Beach is not a sprinter, is he?
“This is a horse that was always fast, but I always kept that away from him because I wanted to go further,” trainer Richard Mandella said.
Anonymity and Selcourt were good enough to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last year at Churchill Downs, and both are trying to get back to the race this year at their home track of Santa Anita.
There are questions, though, over whether both are as good as they were a year ago. Perhaps some answers will be gleaned on Saturday, when both seek their first win of the year in the Grade 3, $100,000 L.A. Woman Stakes at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Jimmy Jerkens still recalls seeing his father, the late Hall of Fame trainer H. Allen Jerkens, shortly after the 1976 Champagne Stakes was run.
“I’ll never forget my father coming back to the barn with his jaw dropped,” Jerkens recalled Thursday morning. “I said ‘What are you all gaga about?’ He said ‘I just saw a 2-year-old run a mile in 1:34 flat with his mouth wide open.’ It was Seattle Slew.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Imagine having a top-class filly-mare turf runner in this day and age. You, as owner or trainer, have been reveling in her accomplishments, her progress, and her recent training moves when entering her for her next race.
And then you pick up the overnight, and there’s Chad Brown with a couple of monsters.
ARCADIA, Calif. – An untimely setback has knocked California’s top sprinter out of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Cistron, whose victory in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar earned a fees-paid berth in the BC Sprint, is out until early next year, trainer John Sadler confirmed on Thursday.
“He tweaked his back, and he needs about 30 days off,” Sadler said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Stop the replay of the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with about 200 yards to go and take your best guess who the winner was.
You already know, of course, that it wasn’t Chalon, even though it sure looked like the Lael Stables colorbearer was on her way to victory. Only a last-gasp run by Shamrock Rose nailed her on the wire, denying trainer Arnaud Delacour his first Breeders’ Cup win.
You might think trainer Chad Brown has won every Grade 1 turf race in North America, but there’s at least one that has eluded the formidable reach of the Brown stable. That’s the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, which Brown will have a have a chance to add to his stuffed résumé this fall with the Palace Malice colt Structor.
Does the name Catholic Boy ring a bell?
Catholic Boy came into the summer of 2019 as one of the most exciting horses in North America but came out of it with only one start.
After a sharp win in the Dixie Stakes on the Preakness undercard in May, Catholic Boy finished second to Preservationist in the July 6 Suburban and hasn’t started since.
