ELMONT, N.Y. – The multiple Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly Devil May Care will miss next month’s Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic as well as the remainder of the year after being diagnosed with a non-contagious case of hepatitis, trainer Todd Pletcher said Saturday.
Devil May Care, who won the Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks following a 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, has been treated with antibiotics and is at her owner John Greathouse’s Glencrest Farm in Kentucky.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Sidney’s Candy, a four-time graded stakes winner in California this year, was scratched from the Grade 2 Oak Tree Mile on Saturday at Hollywood Park because of a pending sale, trainer John Sadler said Saturday morning.
Sadler said the deal was expected to be finalized by Monday but declined to identify the potential buyer. Under terms being discussed for the potential sale, Sadler said he would continue to train Sidney’s Candy for the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Breeders’ Cup is four weeks away, but when it comes to Boys At Tosconova, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. wouldn’t mind if the $2 million Juvenile were run this weekend.
“He’s ready to run right now,” Dutrow said Friday morning after watching Boys At Tosconova work an effortless six furlongs in 1:13.18 over Aqueduct’s main track. “All we have to do is bide our time; it’s not like I have to get him ready to run. He’s ready to chew somebody out right now.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – There is still time for Dancing in Silks to salvage his 2010 season.
The winner of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Sprint in a 25-1 upset, Dancing in Silks has lost three subsequent starts, making his appearance in Saturday’s $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes at Hollywood Park pivotal for owner Ken Kinakin and trainer Carla Gaines’s plans for the rest of the year.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher may have four of the nine horses entered in Saturday’s Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont Park, but trainer Tony Dutrow thinks he has the one.
Dutrow will send out Joyful Victory against the Pletcher quartet of R Heat Lightning, Valiant Passion, Tap for Luck, and Maple Forest in the $300,000 Frizette, a one-turn mile race that awards the winner an automatic berth in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5.
E TOBICOKE, Ontario – The unbeaten Delightful Mary will try to punch her ticket to the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday at Woodbine in the $225,000 Mazarine Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile test for 2-year-old fillies.
Delightful Mary was a $500,000 2-year-old purchase by John Oxley. She won her six-furlong debut over a quality field Aug. 8, while getting a 75 Beyer Speed Figure. Five weeks later, she led throughout a mile and 70-yard allowance, scoring by eight lengths with a 64 Beyer.
Trainer Mark Casse said he became enamored with Delightful Mary at the OBS April sale in Florida.
Just over four weeks out, the prospective field for the Turf Sprint remains very much in flux.
Gilt Edge Girl earned an automatic starting berth when she posted a 53-1 upset over 20 rivals in last Sunday's Win and You're In Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp, and provided the first Group 1 wins for trainer Clive Cox and 21-year-old jockey Luke Morris. It appears doubtful, however, that she will cross the pond.
The Grade 1, $300,000 Frizette at Belmont Park on Saturday is a key Breeders' Cup prep for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Pletcher said he intends to run four of his horses in the Frizette, a Win and You're In race for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5. R Heat Lightning, winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga, and Valiant Passion, who was third in the race, are on deck for the Frizette, while Maple Forest, the runner-up in the Sorority at Monmouth Park, and Tap for Luck, who won her maiden with a Beyer Figure of 90, are also a go for Saturday.
Last Saturday's Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont Park produced at least two likely starters for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf in victorious Air Support and second-place Soldat.
This weekend Keeneland could very well showcase even more potential starters to that race, though perhaps from different preps. Both the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity on Saturday and Sunday's Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes serve as launching pads into the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.