LEXINGTON, Ky. – Venetian Harbor not only showed she can win again when capturing the Raven Run last weekend, but the 3-year-old filly also got a run over the Keeneland surface at the same seven-furlong distance at which her next race, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, will be run Nov. 7.
The New York Gaming Commission on Monday heard two hours of testimony from a variety of racing constituencies as the regulatory body begins to explore whether to change rules governing the use of the whip in a race.
Tiz the Law will depart New York for Keeneland on Sunday, but not before turning in one last, impressive work over the Belmont Park main track early Friday morning, going six furlongs in 1:12.26 under regular exercise rider Heather Smullen as he continues preparations for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 7.
Breeders’ Cup, one of the world’s most prestigious Thoroughbred racing events, and Daily Racing Form, the multi-platform media company dedicated to providing premium horse racing coverage, have joined forces to introduce the first-ever Spanish-language coverage of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, taking place this year at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky. on Nov. 6-7.
The connections of Justify and Hoppertunity have filed a legal challenge to a decision by the California Horse Racing Board to hold hearings over whether the horses should have been disqualified from races they won in 2018.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Karl Broberg, the leading trainer in the country annually in wins from 2014-19, is setting up shop in New York.
Broberg, a dominant fixture in the Midwest and South, has four horses stabled at Belmont Park including Elle’s Town, who is entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Floral Park Stakes for fillies and mares on turf.
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Classy England-based Kameko will skip the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday at Ascot because of very soft turf and hope to find something firmer next month in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland.
His connections would do well not to look back at the 2015 Keeneland Breeders’ Cup, which featured a week of cold rain and a sodden grass course.
Pirate’s Punch will be a longshot in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 7 at Keeneland, but considering where his career was in the summer of 2019, and where he is now, a win would be in line with the odds he’s overcome the past 16 months.
Once considered a fairly promising prospect before his 2-year-old debut, Pirate’s Punch by the summer of his 3-year-old season was an abject disappointment. He had raced five times, and time off, a switch in trainers, riders, and locales, removing and then adding blinkers, and a drop in class, all failed to stop his declining form.
Sometimes it can be just days before departure when trainer Aidan O’Brien reveals the horse, or horses, he plans to send from Ireland for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. And it’s an important announcement: O’Brien is an annual participant in the Juvenile Turf and has won it four times in the race’s 13-year history, including in 2015, the only year Keeneland hosted the Breeders’ Cup, with Hit It a Bomb.
At 6, Arklow has a renewed focus on racing and training in advance of a scheduled third career appearance in the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
Credit the addition of blinkers, absent for Arklow’s first 28 starts, as part of a revival that has left Kentucky trainer Brad Cox optimistic about the veteran horse’s chances.
