Roger Attfield, the Canada-based trainer who is a member of both the U.S. and Canadian Racing Hall of Fames, has retired from training at the age of 86, according to an announcement distributed by Woodbine Racecourse in Ontario, Canada, on Wednesday.
Michael Ball was 22 years old in 1980 when he trained a 3-year-old named Summer Advocate who he thought had potential to be a Kentucky Derby horse. Through April of his 3-year-old year, Summer Advocate was a multiple winner though his one stakes performance to that point was a third in the Spiral Stakes.
“He could have beat half of them,” Ball said of the colt he trained for his parents, Don and Mira Ball. “I was 22 years old and I thought I would have one next year that could run better than this one, we don’t need to run him.”
WHO’S HOT
Emerging Market (Louisiana Derby) gave Chad Brown a third winner of a Kentucky Derby points-scoring race this year, joining Paladin (Risen Star) and Iron Honor (Gotham). Emerging Market was courageous in wearing down Pavlovian, who herded him late. He debuts at 15-1 on David Aragona’s Derby Watch morning line.
Grade 1 winners Careless Jewel, Hard Not to Like, Joshua Tree, and Rahy’s Attorney, along with former Daily Racing Form writer/editor Bill Tallon, are among the 2026 finalists for induction into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
The high-strung Careless Jewel captured the 2009 Alabama at Saratoga by an emphatic 11 lengths, a race that sandwiched her Grade 2 scores in the Delaware Oaks and Cotillion. She was ridden throughout her career by Hall of Famer Robert Landry while based at Woodbine with Hall of Fame trainer Josie Carroll.
An upset by Run With Liberty ($30) in Sunday’s ninth race has led to a carryover of $58,868 in Friday’s $2 pick six at Santa Anita, the next day of live racing.
Only two of the nine runners in Sunday’s ninth and final race were covered in the pick six, and they finished second and fourth – Maggies McGee and Tate Batz.
Friday’s pick six covers the fourth through ninth races on a program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific.
The pick six races have fields of 6, 6, 6, 7, 7 and 8. The pool of new money may surpass $300,000.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Journalism, one of the star 3-year-olds in 2025, had his fifth workout in the last month at Santa Anita on Sunday, moving closer to a comeback this spring.
Journalism worked five furlongs in 1:01.80, his third work this month at the distance.
“He’s showing he’s going the right way,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “His air is starting to come around.”
No specific race goals have been announced, McCarthy said after training on Sunday morning.
“We’re starting to think about some options,” McCarthy said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Express Kid, second by a nose in the Sunland Park Derby in February in his lone start this year, will be sent to Santa Anita later this week for a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 4.
Trainer Justin Evans said the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles is preferred over the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes, a $750,000 race at 1 1/8 miles at Aqueduct on April 4.
“It’s an easier ship than going back to New York,” Evans said on Sunday from Sunland Park in New Mexico. “I know it’s going to be tough.
The New York Racing Association is still feeling the impact of the harsh winter as it announced Sunday the start of turf racing at Aqueduct has been pushed back two weeks.
NYRA, in a press release, cited that due to the impact of heavy snowfall in January and February, combined with continued cold overnight temperatures in March, said it must delay the start of turf racing from April 3 to April 16.
Skippylongstocking is becoming a legend in his own time. The 7-year-old nailed his first Grade 1 win in January in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup and for an encore racked up his 12th graded stakes victory on Saturday at Oaklawn Park in the Grade 3, $500,000 Essex Handicap.
