ARCADIA, Calif. – Horse trainers are humans, too. Wesley Ward can be as robotic as the next guy devoting 100 hours to his workweek, but he’ll also take time to laugh and joke or to smell the flowers, as they say.
In fact, Ward wasn’t even here at Santa Anita in 2014, when his six Breeders’ Cup starters recorded two wins, three seconds, and one third. He was at home in Florida, watching the races on his phone while his son Riley was competing in a high school track meet.
“State championships,” said Ward, underlining the importance.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Maxfield has his game face on.
The Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity winner, who is expected to be among the favorites for next week's Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, turned in his final major work toward that race with a strong half-mile in 47.80 seconds on Friday morning at Keeneland.
"And he looks like he was just out galloping," trainer Brendan Walsh said after Godolphin's homebred colt returned to the barn.
LOUISVILLE, KY. – Jockey Adam Beschizza intends to return to action Nov. 6 at Churchill, exactly four weeks after suffering a broken collarbone in an Oct. 9 spill on the Keeneland turf, according to agent Liz Morris.
Beschizza will ride at Churchill before returning to Fair Grounds for the bulk of a 2019-20 meet, which runs through March 29. Beschizza was the leading rider at the New Orleans track last year with 82 wins.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With trainer Tom Amoss on hand to watch, Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress was sent through her final pre-race breeze toward the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, going a half-mile early Friday in 47.60 seconds at Churchill.
Amoss was released Wednesday from a Louisville hospital following a five-day stay when suffering from complications of appendicitis.
“I came out to the track this morning, but otherwise I’m totally taking it easy,” he said. “It’s been a pretty tough ordeal.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer John Sadler sent out his first Breeders’ Cup runner in 1988, when he was just 32 years old, and even though he lost that year with the sprinter Olympic Prospect, he had to figure that first win would come soon.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Perhaps if Ollie’s Candy had a little more physical appeal, her status as a legit contender in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff would be easier to accept. Based on looks, she is just ordinary.
Or if her owners bred more than one or two mares a year, it might be easier to believe they somehow ended up with one of the top fillies in California, a filly they initially tried to sell. No one wanted her.
Laurel Park has canceled training and racing through the weekend as repairs continue on a broken water pipe under the main track in the vicinity of the second finish line near the clubhouse turn.
The Saturday and Sunday cancellations are the third and fourth since the water pipe broke. The Thursday and Friday cards and Friday's Stronach 5 had previously been called off. Laurel Park was scheduled to host the first and last leg of the weekly multi-track wager.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Thursday was a relatively quiet morning on the Breeders’ Cup front at Santa Anita, with only two potential starters turning in official works. But that will change quickly with at least a dozen or so Breeders’ Cup workers on the schedule here Friday and plenty more to follow throughout the remainder of the weekend.
The weather in Southern California remains picture-perfect – sunny, with temperatures in the high 50s when the track opens for training at 5 a.m., but quickly rising into the low 80s by the time the last horse is off the track at 10 a.m.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Walk In Marrakesh will have Frankie Dettori aboard when she starts as a longshot in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, new trainer Ignacio Correas said on Thursday.
Dettori rode Walk In Marrakesh to a win in the Star Stakes at Sandown Park in England in July.
Dettori, 48, is the regular rider of the star European filly Enable and has won a personal-best 18 Group 1 races this year, and 250 Group 1 or Grade 1 races in his career. The latest came aboard Star Catcher at Ascot, England, last Saturday.
