OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The decision by the connections of Hopeful Stakes winner Forte to opt for next Saturday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland appeared to leave jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. without a mount for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct.
He wasn’t without one very long.
Trainer Mike Maker scooped him up to ride Top Recruit, and that’s just another plus in the colt’s column for a seemingly wide-open Champagne.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Art Collector and Hot Rod Charlie are the deserving favorites, but it’s Rich Strike that gives the Grade 2 Lukas Classic a little extra.
Aside from owning an apparent edge in ability, both Art Collector and Hot Rod Charlie also figure to benefit from a favorable pace scenario as the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic unfolds Saturday at Churchill Downs. Nonetheless, it’s the presence of a Kentucky Derby winner, Rich Strike, that lends a special touch to an afternoon meant – for some, anyway – as a send-off to the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The matchup most people want to see on Breeders’ Cup Day, Flightline versus Life Is Good in the $6 million Classic, is still five weeks away.
On Saturday morning, at Santa Anita, the undefeated Flightline is expected to have his second workout since his devastatingly easy victory in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sept. 3. On Saturday afternoon at Aqueduct, Life Is Good is expected to have something akin to a paid workout when he faces four opponents in the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – If Be Your Best can build off her two emphatic victories in Saratoga when she runs in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes at Aqueduct, she may prove to be North America’s best chance at winning next month’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland.
Be Your Best, an Irish-bred daughter of Muhaarar trained by Horacio De Paz for Mike Ryan, won a maiden race by 3 1/4 lengths on July 31 and followed up with a 3 3/4-length victory in the $150,000 P.G. Johnson Stakes. Both races were run at 1 1/16 miles, the distance of the Miss Grillo.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Nest, the leader of the 3-year-old filly division, will likely make her next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Beldame Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 9, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Nest is a three-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly who recorded convincing victories in both the Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama during the summer at Saratoga. The fact there is 11 weeks between the Alabama and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff made simply training up to that Nov. 4 race a less than desirable option.
The connections of Flash of Mischief are exploring the possibility of a start in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint following the horse’s career performance Sunday in the $150,000 David M. Vance at Remington Park.
Flash of Mischief closed for a 6 1/4-length win in the race, while covering six furlongs in 1:08.78. He earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 104.
“We are exploring all options,” said trainer Karl Broberg.
Lieutenant Dan will miss Saturday’s Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita and remains tentatively on course for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 5 at Keeneland.
Lieutenant Dan won the 2021 Eddie D Stakes and was later second in the BC Turf Sprint at Del Mar. Owner and breeder Nick Alexander and trainer Steve Miyadi recently reached the decision to skip the Eddie D Stakes, Alexander said Sunday.
“He is not going to run in the Eddie. D,” Alexander said. “Steve said he is not 100 percent and does not want to take chances. It’s nothing serious.”
The Foxes finished fastest to post a 6-1 upset in a farcically slow-paced renewal of the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes on Saturday at Newmarket Racecourse in England.
The one-mile, straight course Royal Lodge is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, but post-race there was more talk of The Foxes being a 2023 Derby horse than a candidate to travel to Keeneland this fall for the BC Juvenile Turf.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flightline made it look easy Saturday morning at Santa Anita.
The world’s top-rated horse worked an effortless half-mile in 48 seconds in his first drill since a crushing victory in the Pacific Classic on Sept. 3 at Del Mar. Flightline worked by himself at 6:35 a.m. under exercise rider Juan Leyva.
Royal Ship, the winner of the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in July and two other stakes in the last 18 months, is not a certain starter in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1 and may make his next appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland on Nov. 5.
“I’m looking at the Awesome Again, but I’m not sure,” trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday.
