ELMONT, N.Y. – Channel Maker, runner-up in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, worked a half-mile in 50.40 seconds on Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track.
Channel Maker broke off just in front of a team trained by Danny Gargan that included Jim Dandy winner Tax. Channel Maker was kept in hand by his exercise rider while Tax outfinished his workmate Geta Lode of Lucky by two lengths.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After Our Country put forth an average work on dirt Friday morning at Belmont Park, his connections have opted to keep the horse on the grass and pre-enter him Monday for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Vino Rosso continues to train like a horse who will be a serious player in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 as he worked a solid five furlongs in 1:01.48 over the Belmont Park training track Friday morning.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Green Light’s a no-go for the Breeders’ Cup.
Green Light Go, winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and runner-up to Tiz the Law in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes, will not run in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Friday.
Instead, Green Light Go was to be shipped to Adena Springs in Ocala, Fla., on Saturday for a six-week freshening. He will rejoin Jerkens at Palm Meadows, a training center in Florida, around the first of the year.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tom’s d’Etat has earned a triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure in every start since faltering in the Gulfstream Park slop in the Pegasus World Cup. His resurgence has been so strong and steady that trainer Al Stall Jr. considered running the 6-year-old horse in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
“For a minute, anyway,” said Stall. “I thought it’d be a big field, that Catalina Cruiser would show up – and now Omaha Beach is in there. I’m so glad I took a powder and said there’s no need for us to go out there.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The decision on Thursday to run Omaha Beach in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile meant that his jockey, Mike Smith, needed to find mounts in both the Classic and the Sprint on Nov. 2. One of those was immediately accomplished, and the irony is rich.
Smith picked up the mount on Yoshida for the Classic, essentially swapping mounts with Joel Rosario, who had ridden Yoshida in his last two starts but is replacing Smith on McKinzie for the $6 million Classic at Santa Anita.
Both Smith’s agent, Brad Pegram, and Bill Mott, the trainer of Yoshida, confirmed the news.
Omaha Beach will make his next start in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt mile on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita, owner Rick Porter confirmed on Thursday.
The multiple Grade 1 winner also had been under serious consideration for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on the same program. Santa Anita publicity reported the race decision Thursday, citing trainer Richard Mandella.
Omaha Beach is coming off a win in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 5, which was his first start since his Arkansas Derby victory in April at Oaklawn.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia– Infinite Patience didn’t have any trouble stretching out to a mile and a sixteenth for the first time in the $75,000 Fantasy for 2-year-old fillies at Hastings last Sunday. In fact, the 78 Beyer Speed Figure she received is her career best, and once again she did it without much encouragement from Antonio Reyes.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Catholic Boy came out of his fourth-place finish in Monday’s Grade 2 Knickerbocker Stakes in good order, but as of Wednesday his connections had yet to figure out what might be next for the dual-surface Grade 1 winner.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic was still not out of the question, according to trainer Jonathan Thomas, who said the large ownership group had yet to huddle up to discuss the colt’s future.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The largest stakes field on Saturday will be for the $250,000 Empire Distaff, which is topped by the Linda Rice-trained duo of Newly Minted, who drew the rail, and Midnight Disguise, who landed in post 9 of the 11-horse field going a mile.
Newly Minted is 4 for 4 on dirt and is coming off a nine-length victory in the Fleet Indian Stakes going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga. Rice felt cutting back to a mile in the Distaff was better than sending her 6 1/2 furlongs in the Iroquois. Midnight Disguise has two wins and three seconds in five starts going a one-turn mile.
