The Super Derby will move back to dirt after a one-year turf experiment in one of several changes to the marquee race at Louisiana Downs.
The track, which announced its stakes schedule Monday, opens its 84-date meet on May 5.
The Super Derby will be held on Sept. 2 - a week earlier than last year - and it moves from a Saturday card to a Sunday. In another change, the purse of the race will be $300,000, up from last year’s $200,000.
Javier Castellano has called an Audible in his quest for his first Kentucky Derby victory.
Castellano said on Monday that he would ride Audible for trainer Todd Pletcher in the 144th Kentucky Derby on May 5, thus giving up the mount on Bolt d’Oro, on whom he finished second to Justify in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Woodbine Entertainment and the Japan Racing Association have partnered on a race exchange sponsorship agreement for this year’s Grade 2 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine and the Paradise Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse.
The $500,000 Paradise Stakes, presented by Woodbine Entertainment, is a seven-furlong turf event scheduled for June 24. The $250,000 Canadian Stakes is a 1 1/8-mile grass route for fillies and mares on the Woodbine Mile undercard Sept. 15.
A Kentucky Horse Racing Commission rules advisory committee will discuss a “broad range” of possible amendments to its medication rules during a Monday meeting, according to the commission's general counsel.
The topics will include the state’s trainer responsibility rule, and the classification and use of therapeutic medications, among other subjects, according to John Forgy, the KHRC general counsel who will run the meeting of the five-member Rules Committee.
“There’s a whole series of issues we’re going to go into,” Forgy said. “We’re going to take them one by one.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Eight new names are in the lineup for the fourth and final pool of the 2018 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern for the customary three-day run.
With three major Derby preps set for Saturday – the Wood Memorial, Blue Grass, and Santa Anita Derby – many bettors will be waiting until after results of those races are known to place their wagers, given that odds are not locked in until the pool closes Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern.
An injury that will keep McKinzie from a rematch with Bolt d’Oro in the Santa Anita Derby next Saturday could start a domino effect that puts unbeaten Justify into that race's lineup instead of heading to the Arkansas Derby on April 14.
Trainer Bob Baffert, reached via text in Dubai after West Coast and Mubtaahij ran two-three in the World Cup on Saturday, said Justify could run in the Santa Anita Derby “if he works well Monday.”
Trainer Rudy Rodriguez sent out the first- and second-place finishers in the ninth-race finale at Aqueduct on Friday to score the 1,000th win of his training career.
Woundwithhereyes ($5.40) ran by Spinyatta in the final sixteenth of a mile to give Rodriguez his milestone victory. Junior Alvarado was in the saddle. Woundwithhereyes is co-owned by Michael Dubb, Head of Plains Partners, the Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables.
Anna Rae bested Spinyatta late to get second.
The Player, the 5-year-old horse who suffered fractured sesamoids Saturday in the New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds, will remain under observation at the Louisiana State University Equine Medical Facility in Baton Rouge, La., for at least three weeks after undergoing successful surgery Monday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario -- Shaman Ghost, the 2015 Queen’s Plate winner. along with Sovereign Award-winning trainers Reade Baker and Daniel Vella, and longtime Woodbine track announcer Dan Loiselle headline the list of candidates eligible for induction to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2018.
