Generally, the racing year has gone great for trainer Brian Lynch. The afternoon of Feb. 14 did not go so great.
Lynch ran five horses that day at Gulfstream, the highest-placed finisher third at odds-on. The 4-year-old filly Shred the Gnar went off the 6-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Royal Delta and lost by nearly 20 lengths.
Over the last five years, Graham Motion has trained 16 different fillies and mares to win graded turf stakes and only half as many colts and geldings. For now, that balance has shifted.
Four-year-old gelding Cruise the Nile landed the Henry Clark Stakes last weekend at Laurel Park. He’s unbeaten in four grass races and a winter allowance winner over rising grass star Burnham Square, and he’s not nearly as accomplished as the 4-year-old colt Test Score and the 5-year-old horse One Stripe.
As easy and dominant as Burnham’s Square’s victory Saturday at Keeneland in the Elkhorn Stakes looked, his trainer, Ian Wilkes, firmly believes that was just the start of things.
Burnham Square didn’t make the lead in the Elkhorn, a three-turn, 1 1/2-mile grass race, until he hit the three-sixteenths pole, yet he finished so powerfully that he won by 9 3/4 lengths. Did world-class horses populate the Grade 2 Elkhorn? They did not, but runner-up Desvio won the Sycamore over 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland’s fall meet.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A total of 83 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds were nominated to the 2026 Canadian Triple Crown by the April 1 deadline, including Coronation Futurity victor Fire and Wine and Keeneland maiden winner Magical Factor.
The Canadian Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds commences with the 167th running of the 1 1/4 -mile King’s Plate on the synthetic Tapeta surface Aug. 15. It will be followed by the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, a 1 3/16-mile dirt route Sept. 7 at Fort Erie; and the $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on the grass at Woodbine Sept. 27.
Pentathlon, winner of both his starts this year, including the Army Mule Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 28, is on target for the Grade 3, $175,000 Westchester Stakes at Aqueduct on May 3, trainer Shug McGaughey said.
Pentathlon is still in Florida, where on Thursday he worked three furlongs in 36.20 seconds at Payson Park. McGaughey said Pentathlon may have one more work at Payson before shipping to New York at the end of next week.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of Napoleon Solo know where they want to get this summer with their 3-year-old colt. They’re just not sure what path to take the remainder of the spring.
The Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on July 18 at Monmouth Park is “the early summer goal” for Napoleon Solo, trainer Chad Summers said. His owner, Al Gold, is a New Jersey guy. Cyberknife’s victory in the 2022 edition is arguably his racing highlight.
After the long fall and winter stand at Mahoning Valley Racetrack in Youngstown, the Ohio Thoroughbred circuit is on the move. Spring and summer action in the Buckeye State begins with Thistledown’s meet opener on Monday in North Randall, just outside of Cleveland. Belterra Park in Cincinnati will follow, opening its season on Friday, May 1.
An eight-race Monday program kicks off Thistledown’s 100-day live racing season, which runs through Oct. 8. The track runs four days a week, generally on a Monday-Thursday schedule.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Mad House ran arguably the best race of his young career in the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap last weekend at Oaklawn Park and now he could take his sharp form to either Churchill Downs or Laurel Park.
Mad House was a determined half-length winner over Roll On Big Joe in the Count Fleet. He covered six furlongs on a fast track in 1:08.93 and for the effort earned his best Beyer Speed Figure, a 102. Mad House invaded off an allowance win at Tampa Bay Downs.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – One of the most eagerly anticipated workouts in the lead-up to this year’s Kentucky Derby took place in relative anonymity shortly after sunrise Thursday at Palm Beach Downs. There, likely Derby favorite Renegade breezed four furlongs in 48.91 seconds in front of some half-dozen spectators, including his trainer, Todd Pletcher.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bernieandtherose, a two-time New York-bred stakes winner as a 3-year-old in 2025, makes her 4-year-old debut Saturday in a first-level allowance race at seven furlongs.
Bernieandtherose will be making her first start since she finished third in the Bouwerie Stakes on June 4 at Saratoga. Trainer Dominick Schettino said Bernieandtherose suffered from bone bruising and he gave her nearly six months off.
Prior to the Bouwerie, Bernieandtherose had won five of her first six starts, including the East View Stakes and the Maddie May, both for statebreds.
