There is not much use in dramatic hand-wringing, and goodness knows this reporter is a keg half-full kind of guy. But there are few things more disheartening – at least in horse racing – than the sight of a four-horse field in a Grade 1 race at six furlongs on the main track contested on the threshold of the Breeders’ Cup that all but guarantees the winner not only a place in the starting field, but also a shot at a division title.
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DRF Past Performances
Four Grade 1 turf races for fillies and mares in the East this year have all shared a common outcome: a victory from a Chad Brown trainee and, in some cases, Brown runners also finishing second or third. Brown-trained runners completed the trifecta twice in those races: the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland on April 14 and the Beverly D. at Arlington on Aug. 11.
Brown is hoping for another top-three sweep Saturday in the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady at Keeneland. He has three entered – A Raving Beauty, Quidura, and Off Limits – and all are contenders.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Miss Sunset got a head start on her California colleagues. While Marley’s Freedom and a couple of other major contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint stayed home at Santa Anita to simply train toward the Nov. 3 race at Churchill Downs, Miss Sunset was flown this week to Keeneland to race in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes.
They were stabled across the street from each other in New Jersey. They began their racing careers in the same race in Delaware. They each won graded stakes in New York.
Saturday, by running in Grade 1 stakes in different states, Call Paul and Mind Control hope to punch their tickets for a reunion of sorts in Kentucky in next month’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Double Touch won the restricted Wickerr Stakes in a 29-1 surprise at Del Mar on July 22, retaining the victory after a lengthy stewards’ inquiry involving a roughly run final furlong.
The Wickerr was trainer Dan Blacker’s first stakes win. The 36-year-old Blacker can win his first graded stakes if Double Touch prevails in Saturday’s Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A blood test revealed that Abel Tasman was dealing with an illness when she finished fifth as the 1-10 favorite in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita last Sunday.
The champion 3-year-old filly of 2017, Abel Tasman remains on schedule for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, trainer Bob Baffert said.
“She’s fighting something off,” Baffert said on Wednesday. “She had a legitimate excuse. She’ll be all right.”
Battle of Midway will be able to claim a unique distinction were he to win the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile for the second year in a row on Nov. 3. He would not be the first two-time winner – think Goldencents – but rather he would be the first to win the race at a two different configurations.
Battle of Midway won the Dirt Mile at two turns last year at Del Mar. This year, the race will be run at one turn with the move back to Churchill Downs.
Mind Your Biscuits is so versatile that he could be a major player in three Breeders’ Cup races, ranging from the 1 1/4-mile Classic to the Dirt Mile to the six-furlong Sprint.
After Mind Your Biscuits won the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic last Saturday at Churchill Downs, trainer and co-owner Chad Summers now must decide whether to stretch him out even farther in the $6 million Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs or to cut him back in distance.
In its 126 prior runnings, the historic Futurity at Belmont Park has been won by racing greats such as Domino (1893), Colin (1907), Man o’ War (1919), Citation (1947), Tom Fool (1951), Native Dancer (1952), Nashua (1954), Bold Ruler (1956), Secretariat (1972), Affirmed (1977), and Holy Bull (1993).
One day before Roy H and Ransom the Moon face each other Saturday in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship, Whitmore and Limousine Liberal get this unofficial rivalry week started when they meet for the fifth time in Friday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Phoenix on opening day at Keeneland.