POMONA, Calif. - Jorge Gutierrez does not expect to repeat as leading trainer this fall at the Los Angeles County Fair, but he does welcome a return for his first graded stakes winner.
Bright Thought was scheduled for his first workout on the comeback trail this week after undergoing a minor procedure for a splint injury.
The 4-year-old colt has not started since a dominating 3 1/4-length victory March 16 in the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes, his fourth consecutive victory.
Since its inception in 2007, four of the six winners of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf have come from Europe, and right now, it is far too early to know which Europeans will be coming to Santa Anita for this year’s renewal.
If there is a horse in North America that can keep Wise Dan from winning his second straight Breeders’ Cup Mile, that horse has yet to reveal himself. Obviously, California’s best, has won all his one-mile races this season, but even on his home turf he was no match for Wise Dan in the 2012 BC Mile.
Major stakes victories don’t come as readily as they once did for trainer D. Wayne Lukas, but in 2013 they have come. Lukas won his first classic in 13 years when Oxbow upset the Preakness. Lukas won his first Travers in 18 years when Will Take Charge nailed Moreno on the wire.
In Strong Mandate, Lukas may have a horse who can give him his first Breeders’ Cup Juvenile victory in 17 years. Lukas, 78, is the all-time leader in Breeders’ Cup wins with 19, five of which have come in the $2 million Juvenile, which will have its 30th running on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
The $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 may have a female presence.
The Fugue earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Turf, as part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, with a victory in Saturday’s $907,500 Irish Champion Stakes against males at Leopardstown in Ireland.
After the race trainer John Gosden said The Fugue, a 4-year-old filly owned by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, remains a candidate for the rich Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris on Oct. 6, but mentioned the Breeders’ Cup as a long-term goal.
Finding contenders in early September for the one-mile Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita is both easy and hard. It’s easy if all you do is look at stakes on turf for 2-year-old fillies held so far this year, and hard because those races do not figure to yield many starters for an event that is still two months away.
There have been just two turf stakes in major racing centers for juvenile fillies on turf thus far, one at Del Mar and one at Saratoga, so the pool of candidates is still small.
Royal Delta will be strongly favored when she seeks an unprecedented three-peat in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, though trainer Bill Mott and owner Benjamin Leon have not closed the door on the BC Classic.
“That has not been decided,” Mott said Monday. “It’s more logical to keep her in the filly race for now.”
The Breeders' Cup will be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 1-2.
Overanalyze, a Grade 1-winning 3-year-old and millionaire, has been retired from racing, owner Mike Repole said Saturday.
Repole said stud plans are pending, though he hoped to announce something within a month.
A son of Dixie Union trained by Todd Pletcher, Overanalyze won 4 of 11 starts, winning at distances from five furlongs to 1 1/8 miles. At 3, he won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby before finishing 11th in the Kentucky Derby, run over a sloppy track. Overanalyze also ran in the Belmont Stakes, finishing seventh.
Game On Dude has the goods of a champion
Each year in every sport the champion is decided when the top teams meet at the highest level. Unfortunately for horse racing, that is not always the case. A champion can be crowned by skipping the top races and avoiding running against the top horses. In American horse racing today, the classic distance is 1 1/4 miles, and most of the Horse of the Year winners of the recent past have won at that distance.
Four men associated with the notorious Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel have received lengthy prison sentences after being convicted on money-laundering charges related to the purchase and training of Quarter Horses in the U.S., according to prosecutors in the case.
Jose Trevino Morales, who is the brother of one of the purported leaders of Los Zetas, and Francisco Colorado Cessa were both sentenced to 20 years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks. Both were described in a statement from prosecutors as “Veracruz businessmen.”
