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.

CHURCHILL DOWNS
Saturday, April 19
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 73 degrees
Track: Fast

ELMONT, N.Y. – While trainer Chad Brown will have to wait at least another year to try and win his first Kentucky Derby, the five-time Eclipse Award winning trainer will have a chance to win his first Kentucky Oaks with Ballerina d’Oro in two weeks. 

Ballerina d’Oro’s nose victory as the 3-5 favorite over Early On in the Grade 3 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct on April 5 may not have attracted many onto her bandwagon, but Ballerina d’Oro did look solid Saturday morning working a half-mile in 47.88 seconds over Belmont Park’s training track in preparation for the May 2 Oaks. 

ARCADIA, Calif. – The streaking 3-year-old Journalism, early favorite for the Kentucky Derby after his impressive victory in the Santa Anita Derby on April 5, posted his first workout since then early Saturday at Santa Anita.

The half-mile work seemed like a maintenance drill, and those who liked Journalism before his 47-second half-mile work will still like him after. He does things easily.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s been a busy 72 hours or so, with plenty of miles covered, for trainer Brad Cox.  

Madaket Road, runner-up in the Rebel and fourth in the Florida Derby, will be pointed to the Grade 2, $600,000 Pat Day Mile on the undercard of the May 3 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, trainer Bob Baffert said Friday afternoon.

“That’s sort of been our goal all along, that’s a better distance for him,” Baffert said.