CHURCHILL DOWNS
Tuesday, April 22
Weather: Clear
Temp: 51
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There were two potential Kentucky Derby starters scheduled to work Tuesday morning during the special Derby/Oaks training session that begins daily at 7:15 a.m. at Churchill Downs. But in the end it was the Kentucky Oaks-bound filly La Cara who stole the show on a clear but chilly morning under the Twin Spires.
Louisville native Whit Beckman is approaching his second Kentucky Derby this year. What did he learn from saddling that first Derby starter last year?
“Don’t stress out about it,” Beckman said.
Those are brave words less than two weeks out from America’s most famous race. But Beckman has exuded relaxation outside his shed row at Churchill Downs, which currently houses not only 2025 Kentucky Derby candidate Flying Mohawk, but also Kentucky Oaks candidates Drexel Hill and Simply Joking.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Monday, April 21
Weather: Showery
Temperature: 70
Track: Good/fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The weather was the big story Monday at Churchill Downs with intermittent showers falling and the track sealed and rated good when opening at 5:15 a.m. Fortunately, the rain abated and the course was able to be harrowed and upgraded to fast in time for the special Kentucky Derby/Oaks training session that began two hours later.
The lament of equine veterinarians and television producers is the same: Horses can’t talk. In an ideal world, equine veterinarians get around that limitation by relying on body language, physical examinations, and diagnostic testing. For television producers, there’s no such well of knowledge to create an intimate human-horse connection.
It has been a good news, bad news, good news couple weeks for trainer Cherie DeVaux.
DeVaux has a couple of Grade 1-winning fillies, She Feels Pretty and Vahva, working at Keeneland toward their first starts of 2025.
Racing at Keeneland this April, however, has not gone DeVaux’s way. After winning five races the last two Keeneland meets, she enters the final week of the spring meet with one win from 22 starts, a far cry from her excellent winter at Fair Grounds, where DeVaux’s barn notched 22 winners from just 79 runners.
About 2 1/2 hours before First Mission won the $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap, his trainer, Brad Cox, won a second-level Keeneland allowance race with a horse who might turn out to be the equal of First Mission – or any other older dirt-route horse in North America.
He’ll get a chance to start making that case in his intended next start, the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 7 at Saratoga.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Gordon Jones, who died on Friday at the age of 95, was many things through his involvement in academics and racing.
Jones, known as “The Professor,” was a renowned handicapper for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, but also an author of two books, a journalism professor, a seminar host and a television and radio commentator.
At a time when Southern California racetracks were packed with fans, Jones was one of the most well-known public handicappers in the region.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The $34,000 purse of a starter allowance for older fillies and mares at Santa Anita in January was ordered redistributed by track stewards on Friday after race winner Ms Brightside tested positive for omeprazole, an anti-ulcer medication.
Ms Brightside won the one-mile turf race by a length as the 2-1 second choice. The positive was found in a post-race blood test, according to the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.
ARCADIA, Calif. - When Rodriguez won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct on April 5, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith found the colt eager to continue after the finish.
“I love that when I pulled him up the outrider had to get me,” Smith recalled on Sunday morning. “It was easy for him, the first time going a mile and an eighth.”
Something similar happened at Santa Anita on Sunday in an early morning workout. Rodriguez worked five furlongs in 1:00 and showed ample energy while galloping out around the first turn.
