ARCADIA, Calif. – There was something familiar about Midnight Bisou’s half-mile work Monday at Santa Anita, 51.60 seconds under exercise rider Angel Garcia. The favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff was working for the first time since returning to California.
“An easy half to get acquainted with the racetrack,” assistant trainer Scott Blasi said. “She bounced off the racetrack. That’s exactly how we wanted her to feel.”
Special Blessing could go favored Friday night in the $100,000 Magnolia at Delta Downs. The mile race is the first stakes of the meet, and it is restricted to fillies and mares bred in Louisiana.
Special Blessing is making her first start since April 26, when she captured the $75,000 Evangeline Downs Distaff. She rolled by 6 1/2 lengths, and her Beyer Speed Figure of 86 in the mile race is the best last-race number in the 10-horse Magnolia.
Mocito Rojo could be headed back to Kentucky.
The Delta Downs-based horse, who won his fifth straight race in the Grade 3 Lukas Classic last month at Churchill Downs, is being considered for the Grade 2, $200,000 Fayette on Oct. 26 at Keeneland, trainer Shane Wilson said Wednesday. He said Mocito Rojo also has the option of the $100,000 Delta Mile at home on Nov. 16.
The decision by the connections of Mongolian Groom to make him eligible to the Breeders’ Cup Classic by paying a nomination fee of $200,000 seems a steep price to pay, but in fact he could have gotten in earlier for a far cheaper price, and the Breeders’ Cup has made the process much more affordable than in its earlier days.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Fair Maiden, third in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Sept. 15 at Woodbine, will be ridden by jockey Drayden Van Dyke in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, trainer Eoin Harty said Friday.
Van Dyke, who through Sunday was tied for the lead in the jockey standings at the Santa Anita autumn meeting with Abel Cedillo, will be Fair Maiden’s fourth rider in as many starts.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Onthewingsofadream will have his Santa Anita debut Friday after an unconventional start to his career last month.
Trained by Vann Belvoir for Truline Racing, Onthewingsofadream won two 870-yard races against Thoroughbred and Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos in September – a maiden race and an allowance race. Friday, the 5-year-old Onthewingsofadream starts in an allowance race with a $16,000 claiming option for California-breds at six furlongs.
The 870-yard races gave the gelding race experience and obviated the need for repeated workouts, Belvoir said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Cleopatra’s Strike, who won the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship at 1 1/4 miles on Sept. 28 in his first start since January, is scheduled to have his next start in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap on Nov. 30 at Del Mar.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said recently that the BC Turf at 1 1/2 miles is beyond Cleopatra’s Strike best distance. The $200,000 Seabiscuit Handicap is run at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
“I don’t know if he’s a mile-and-a-half horse,” he said. “I think the spacing is good. It’s a lot of money to put him in that field for the Breeders’ Cup.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of the Oak Tree Racing Association for 26 years, died Tuesday after a brief hospitalization, according to friends.
Chillingworth was 93.
Best known to friends and racing colleagues as Chilly, Chillingworth had an extensive background in real estate development and had been a racehorse owner since the early 1970s.
With partners, Chillingworth raced Swing Till Dawn, who won the 1983 Charles H. Strub Stakes; Yashgan, who won the 1985 Oak Tree Invitational; and Forzando, who won the 1985 Met Mile.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – South Bend, whose narrow allowance victory here last Saturday kept him unbeaten in two career starts, could run next in the Nov. 2 Nashua at Aqueduct, said Hunter Rankin, president of Sagamore Farm, which owns the 2-year-old Algorithms colt.
Trained by Stan Hough, South Bend also is under consideration for the Oct. 27 Street Sense and/or the Nov. 30 Kentucky Jockey Club at his home base, Churchill Downs, although Sagamore already has Necker Island as a likely starter for the one-mile Street Sense, Rankin said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – No word if Chad Brown got to shake hands with Queen Elizabeth II when in England for the Tattersalls Sales early this week, nor whether he got to tell her he’s hoping to once again win the race that will be run in her honor back in the colonies Saturday.
Missed opportunities aside, Brown will be all business when on hand at Keeneland to send out three of the favorites in the 36th running of the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, the sixth and final Grade 1 of the fall meet.
