ARCADIA, Calif. - In his 35th start at Santa Anita on Saturday, Midnight Mammoth won for the eighth time in an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles, recording a 6-1 upset.

The surprise victory is likely to lead to an appearance in the Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup on May 26. With a purse of $200,000, the Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles is the leading dirt race of the Santa Anita spring meeting.

“That’s the plan,” trainer Craig Dollase said on Sunday.

Dollase said he was encouraged that Midnight Mammoth stalked Eagles Flight to the turn before taking command.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In the last month, the 4-year-old filly Public Assembly has gone from a maiden race winner to a contender in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita on May 26.

Bought for $225,000 at Keeneland last November, Public Assembly won her California debut in an allowance race at 1 1/4 miles on turf on March 30 in her first start of 2025, and followed with a win in her first start in a stakes in Saturday’s Grade 3 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf.

CHURCHILL DOWNS 
Sunday, April 27
Weather: Sunny 
Temperature: 47
Track: Fast 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Anybody looking for one last opportunity to knock the Derby favorite likely came away disappointed after Santa Anita Derby winner Journalism turned in his final major prep shortly after the renovation break Sunday at Churchill Downs.

Jimmy Jerkens, a multiple Grade 1 stakes-winning trainer who recently returned to the U.S. after a two-year stint in Saudi Arabia, has taken a job as an assistant to Kenny McPeek, who plans to maintain a year-round operation in New York beginning this spring.

McPeek, who maintains a strong Kentucky division as well, announced the move in a video posted on X Sunday afternoon.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was a whirlwind 36 hours for jockey Umberto Rispoli, who, in his attempted travels between California and Kentucky, wound up experiencing more about the Atlanta airport than he would have liked.

“I walked all around the Atlanta airport for 5 1/2 hours,” Rispoli said. “I know all about terminal B and C. I couldn’t get lost in Atlanta.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Oaklawn has proposed a 64-date meet for next season that includes a four-days-a-week racing schedule in February, March and April. There would be a more than three week break in January.

The calendar is pending approval of the Arkansas Racing Commission, which is scheduled to meet Thursday.

Oaklawn has raced three days a week for most of the current season, which ends Saturday.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Agent Bill Castle, who through last month at Oaklawn Park was representing jockey Ramon Vazquez, said Saturday he is leaving his role in the racing industry after being diagnosed with a rare blood disorder. He has returned to his native New York.

Castle, 60, has been receiving an aggressive series of treatments for polycythemia vera, a form of blood cancer. He is home, but has to regularly have blood, which regenerates, drawn out of his system at Mount Sinai Hospital.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Lonnie Briley, who will saddle millionaire Coal Battle in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, is not the only accomplished trainer in his family.

Ronald Briley, a cousin who died in 2020, was inducted into the Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association’s Hall of Fame on April 12, according to a press release from the organization. The ceremony was at Lonnie Briley’s home track of Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La.  

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The question heading into the Kentucky Oaks draw was not who would be favored, but how big a favorite Good Cheer would be. And indeed, the undefeated filly, winner of the Fair Grounds Oaks in her most recent start, was installed at a prohibitive 6-5 for Friday’s 151st running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Oaks.

Closest to her to start the wagering will be Ashland Stakes winner La Cara, at 6-1 on Mike Battaglia’s morning line.

Harness racing will cease at Cal-Expo in Sacramento, Calif., after the current season ends on May 2. The board of directors of the state fair grounds voted on Friday to terminate a lease agreement with the operators of the race meeting, according to a statement released by Cal-Expo.

The statement indicated the board of directors acted on the recommendation of its staff. The current meeting began last December. A fall meeting was scheduled to begin in November.