There are no quiet weekends for the remainder of March for Flavien Prat, the champion jockey of 2024.
After riding at Santa Anita last Saturday, Prat will be on planes each weekend for the rest of the month. This Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby, he is scheduled to ride Chancer McPatrick, who won the Grade 1 Hopeful and Grade 1 Champagne Stakes last year before finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar on Nov. 1 in his last start.
Gaming, who finished eighth in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn in his 3-year-old debut, will make his next start in the $500,000 Virginia Derby on March 15 at Colonial Downs, trainer Bob Baffert said.
“It’s a mile and an eighth, one turn, we’ll give him one more crack at it,” said Baffert, who has Irad Ortiz Jr. to ride. “The Oaklawn race was horrendous. He didn’t get anything out of that. He’s come back and worked well.”
Disappointed, but not discouraged, trainer Ian Wilkes said Burnham Square, fourth as the favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, will continue down the Triple Crown trail and be pointed to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 5.
“It’s back home,” Wilkes said “He’s run three times [in Florida]. We’ll get back to Kentucky and just plan on the Blue Grass and see if we can rebound.”
The connections of impressive maiden winner Baeza hope the Santa Anita Derby has at least six starters, which means the full allotment of Kentucky Derby qualifying points will be awarded. Regardless, trainer John Shirreffs will not fret. He said, “There’s nothing I can do about it.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Mark Glatt is a native of Washington state best known for his success in California, where he is the leading trainer at the current Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
Glatt began his career in more modest surroundings, winning his first race at tiny Yakima Meadows in Washington in 1994. For his accomplishments in the last 30 years, Glatt will be inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame this summer. The ceremony will be held Aug. 16, the eve of the $125,000 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs.
WHO’S HOT
Journalism rockets to favoritism on the Derby Watch Top 20 following a decisive 108 Beyer Speed Figure comeback victory over heavily favored Barnes in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita. Journalism’s price was lowered to 9-2 by Daily Racing Form linemaker David Aragona. Barnes, who finished more than nine lengths clear of third, drops slightly to 8-1.
Two New York Racing Association officials whose roles are vital to race-day operations are no longer with the corporation, a NYRA spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
Hector Soler, the starter at NYRA tracks since December 2020, was fired on Sunday. No cause for his dismissal was given.
“Hector Soler’s employment as NYRA Head Starter was terminated on Sunday, March 2,” NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna wrote in an e-mail. “As is consistent with NYRA policies, Soler is precluded from accessing NYRA properties for a period of 90 days.”
Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher will start a seven-day suspension imposed by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit on Tuesday after deciding not to dispute a positive late last year for a regulated corticosteroid in a horse he trains.
Pletcher will begin serving the suspension three days after one of his horses, River Thames, finished a close second in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, a major prep for the Kentucky Derby. Pletcher also has several late-blooming horses that could figure in the road to the Derby over the next several months.
Kendrick Carmouche, the second-generation jockey who has ridden on the New York circuit since 2015, has been named the winner of the 2025 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award after a nationwide vote of his peers, the administrator of the award, Santa Anita Park, announced on Monday.
Carmouche, the son of the Louisiana jockey Sylvester Carmouche, has ridden for 25 years, mostly in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and New York. He is known for his outgoing relationship with fans and his willingness to volunteer for nearly any cause benefiting riders or horses.
The horsemen’s organization representing owners and trainers at Gulfstream Park in Florida has rejoined the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association as an affiliate, the organizations announced on Monday.
