Churchill Downs
Thursday, April 27
Weather: Clear
Temp: 53°
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ten potential Kentucky Oaks fillies worked within about a 12-minute window following the first renovation break on a somber Thursday morning at Churchill Downs after Kentucky Derby contender Wild On Ice suffered a catastrophic injury to his left hind leg while pulling up after a work shortly after the track opened at 5:15 a.m. Wild On Ice was later euthanized.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Glenn Sikura, Irwin Driedger, Pink Lloyd, and Formal Gold are the 2023 inductees into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame on the Thoroughbred side.
Sikura will be inducted in the Thoroughbred builder category. The owner and operator of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm Canada, Sikura was a past president of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society. He has served as the chief steward of The Jockey Club of Canada since 2018.
He has won four of the last five Eclipse Awards as North America’s outstanding jockey and has averaged 320 wins annually the last eight years. At age 30, Irad Ortiz Jr. has risen to the top of his profession.
Ortiz also has developed a reputation as an aggressive rider, who in his quest to win walks the tightrope of daring and dangerous.
“I’m very competitive, but I would never try to put somebody in danger,” Ortiz said. “Everybody who knows me, knows how I am. I am very competitive but I’m not going to try and drop somebody, that’s for sure.”
WHO’S HOT
Jace’s Road might seem curious as a “Who’s Hot.” After all, he is a 50-1 outsider by Derby Watch linemaker David Aragona and finished a fading third in the Louisiana Derby despite easy fractions. The reason Jace’s Road is hot is the Kentucky Derby defection of Blazing Sevens, which allows Jace’s Road into the field. He has 45 qualifying points, the same as Skinner and Cyclone Mischief. Jace’s Road wins the tiebreaker, which is non-restricted stakes earnings.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The connections of Florida Derby runner-up Mage have tabbed Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano to ride their horse in this year’s Kentucky Derby, a turn of events that now leaves Raise Cain without a rider just 11 days out from the race.
Castellano had originally given trainer Ben Colebrook a call to ride Raise Cain, runaway winner of the Grade 3 Gotham but a non-threatening fifth in the Grade 1 Blue Grass.
Jockey Corey Nakatani and modern Thoroughbreds Arrogate, California Chrome, and Songbird head a class of eight set to be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame this summer.
Those four, elected in the contemporary category, will be joined in enshrinement by jockey Fernando Toro, selected via the Historic Review Committee, and John W. Hanes II, Leonard W. Jerome, and Stella Thayer, who were selected as Pillars of the Turf for their contributions to the sport.
Churchill Downs
Monday, April 24
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 35
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An impressive work just nine days removed from his last start by Disarm and a very strong open gallop with blinkers on by Sun Thunder highlighted the special Kentucky Derby-Oaks training session at a chilly Churchill Downs on Monday.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Weather: Sunny
Track: Fast
Temperature: 38
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Nobody had any problem keeping their cool Sunday morning at Churchill Downs, where the temperature dipped into the mid-to-high 30s during training hours, and reached its low point about the time the track opened for the 15-minute window reserved for Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses at 7:30 a.m. following the renovation break.
Trainer Chad Brown will sit out this year’s Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks.
Brown confirmed Sunday that Blazing Sevens, who sits 17th on the Kentucky Derby points list, will bypass the Run for the Roses on May 6 and instead be pointed to the Preakness on May 20. Additionally, Brown said that Shidabhuti, who sits 7th on the Kentucky Oaks points list, will skip that race and point to the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont Park on June 9.
Success at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday may have been the groundwork for a blockbuster Memorial Day weekend for California trainer Craig Lewis.
On Saturday, the 6-year-old Brickyard Ride won the eighth stakes of his career in the Grade 3 Kona Gold Stakes for sprinters at 6 1/2 furlongs. Earlier in the day, the 5-year-old mare Warrens Candy Girl unleashed a remarkable rally in the final furlong that led to a narrow win in an allowance race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf.
