LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After a slow and easy work a week ago coming out of her victory in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx on Sept. 21, it was time for Street Band to get a little more serious Monday morning at Churchill Downs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield is one of three trainers to have won the $225,000 Coronation Futurity five times or more, and he will look for victory number six with Pleasecallmeback on Nov. 23. The Coronation Futurity will be run over 1 1/8-miles on Tapeta for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds and will provide a look at horses who are among the early favorites for next summer’s Queen’s Plate.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The fifth equine fatality of the fall meet occurred Sunday when Call to Victory, ridden by Julien Leparoux, was euthanized after suffering a catastrophic right-foreleg injury on the backstretch of the turf course during the sixth race. Through 13 racing days, this was the third fatality to result from a turf race, with the other two occurring on the main track.
Leparoux was not injured, nor were any other horses or riders.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Bell’s the One, the 13-1 winner of the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes last Saturday, likely will make her next start in the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, said trainer Neil Pessin.
Bell’s the One is scheduled to ship Sunday to Pessin’s winter base at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. The daughter of Majesticperfection drew clear late in prevailing by 1 1/4 lengths over First Star, the California-based filly who also will point to the La Brea, according to trainer Ron Ellis.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Irad Ortiz Jr. has been suspended three days for his role in the disqualification of his mount, Elle’s Town, from the fifth race Friday at Keeneland, but the penalty will not keep the star jockey from riding in the upcoming Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
Ortiz, the 2018 Eclipse Award-winning jockey based primarily in New York, will serve his days Oct. 27, 30, and 31. The Breeders’ Cup is set for Nov. 1-2.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Guarana, the two-time Grade 1 winning 3-year-old filly, will not race again this year, thus missing a scheduled start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, trainer Chad Brown said Sunday.
“This week in training out of her last work I just wasn’t happy the way she was moving behind,” Brown said. “I’m going to err on the side of caution and make sure she’s all right.”
Sadler’s Joy, who has run in each of the past two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, will not participate in that race this year, trainer Tom Albertrani said Sunday.
Albertrani said he was not happy with how Sadler’s Joy came out of his third-place finish in the Oct. 5 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in which he was beaten a half-length by Arklow.
“It looked like it took something out of him,” Albertani said. “I wasn’t confident enough to go.”
Mr. Buff, one-length winner of Saturday’s $300,000 Empire Classic for New York-breds, could step back into open company in the Grade 1, $600,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 29, trainer John Kimmel said.
Kimmel said the Clark intrigues him because, at 1 1/8 miles around two turns, “it’s one of the only [races] out there at the right distance, right configuration, right time.”
Maximum Security, the multiple Grade 1 winning 3-year-old who was disqualified from first in the Kentucky Derby, won’t be going to the Breeders’ Cup, but he will have a fall campaign that will get started in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Bold Ruler Handicap at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Bricks and Mortar, Sistercharlie, Uni, and Maximum Security topped a star-studded workout tab Sunday at Belmont Park.
Bricks and Mortar, the leading turf male in North America, worked five furlongs in 1:00.15 over Belmont Park’s inner turf course. Bricks and Mortar worked in company with Without Parole, a Group 1 winner in 2018, and the pair went their first quarter in 24.86 seconds and their final three furlongs in 35.29 seconds.
“He’s in top form, he breezed great today,” trainer Chad Brown said.
