Citizen Bull, the Bob Baffert-trained 2024 champion juvenile male and favorite in the Daily Racing Form Derby Watch Top 20, remains on target for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5.
Citizen Bull looked strong in a solo work Feb. 23 at Santa Anita, going six furlongs in 1:13. Baeza, a half-brother to Mage and Dornoch, was scheduled to work this week, his first drill since an impressive maiden win Feb. 14. Baeza, trained by John Shirreffs, also is aiming to the Santa Anita Derby.
Is it too soon to give up on Gaming? A Grade 1 winner and second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Gaming fell off the Derby radar when he disappointed in two subsequent starts. After finishing a distant third in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity, Gaming broke poorly and finished eighth in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on Jan. 25 at Oaklawn Park. He needed a freshening.
“I was disappointed his last two outs, so I just backed off a little bit,” trainer Bob Baffert said.
WHO’S HOT
Coal Battle and Madaket Road finished one-two in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, but opinions may differ on who ran better. Coal Battle benefited from a perfect trip behind a hot pace to win clear. Daily Racing Form linemaker David Aragona lowered his Derby Watch odds from 50-1 to 15-1. Coal Battle is 5 for 5 on dirt.
Three veteran members of the handicapping contest circuit, including one winner of the National Horseplayers Championship, have been voted into the NHC Hall of Fame, the administrator of the tournament, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, announced on Tuesday.
First Resort, winner of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in November, is off the Triple Crown trail due to a stress fracture in his left hind hock, trainer Eoin Harty said Tuesday.
No surgery will be required but First Resort will be out of training for 60 days, with the potential of him returning for a late summer/fall campaign.
“He should be back as long as the X-rays are clean,” Harty said. “Just unfortunate timing.”
This year's 151st edition of the Kentucky Oaks has attracted 117 early nominees, up from 104 for last year's running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million classic.
Early nominations for the Oaks, which required a payment of $200, closed Feb. 15. The 1 1/8-mile race for fillies will be run on Friday, May 2, at Churchill Downs.
Fillies can still be made eligible for the Oaks with a $1,500 late-nomination fee through April 9, or with a $15,000 supplement at the entry deadline on April 26.
Thirteen trainers and one veterinarian based at Penn National Racecourse in Grantville, Pa., conspired to hide illegal injections of corticosteroids to more than 100 horses during an 18-month period in 2023 and 2024, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority alleged on Friday.
Smarty Jones, the popular colt who narrowly missed winning the 2004 Triple Crown, is among the eight racehorses who will appear on the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame’s ballot for 2025, the Hall of Fame announced Thursday.
Smarty Jones, who lost only the Belmont Stakes in his nine-race career, is making his first appearance on the ballot this year, 21 years after his Triple Crown campaign. To be included on the Hall of Fame ballot for contemporary horses, a horse must have been retired for at least five years and been active within the past 25 years.
Breeders’ Cup participants Full Count Felicia and Nitrogen, along with Daily Racing Form photographer Barbara Livingston, are among the Sovereign Award finalists for the 2024 Canadian racing season, announced by the Jockey Club of Canada on Wednesday.
Off her victory over Moira in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor, Full Count Felicia is the front-runner for Horse of the Year honors, which will be announced during the 50th Sovereign Awards ceremony on April 24. Trained by Kevin Attard, she is a shoo-in to take the female turf category over fellow finalists Fev Rover and Stormcast.
In the mid-1990s, when he was working as a farm manager for owner/breeder John Franks, Lonnie Briley took a shining to a weanling colt by the Grade 1 winner Lively One.
Briley, apparently, was in the minority of the group evaluating the horse who eventually became Answer Lively.
