A licensed groom and hotwalker working at Remington Park has been arrested and charged with five counts of animal cruelty, according to an incident report from the Oklahoma City Police Department.  

Dakota Wilbourn, 25, allegedly cut five horses in the neck or snout area Tuesday night at Remington. The horses all needed stitches, according to the police report. Wilbourn on Wednesday was summarily suspended by the Remington board of stewards and has a show cause hearing Oct. 22, according to a ruling dated Thursday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If you like your weather cold and your horses fast, Churchill Downs was the place to be for tracking contenders on the Breeders’ Cup trail on Friday morning.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A number of horses with designs on the Breeders’ Cup worked Friday morning at Santa Anita, including the exciting 2-year-old filly Donna Veloce, who effortlessly bested a workmate while traveling five furlongs in 1:00, the best time of 44 at the distance over a dull, fast track.

With Flavien Prat aboard, Donna Veloce broke off about three lengths behind her company, cruised past in upper stretch, and was 2 1/2 lengths to the good crossing the finish.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Richard Mandella said the decision to run Omaha Beach in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile came after a conference call among he, owner Rick Porter, and representatives of Spendthrift Farm.

“It was a group effort,” Mandella said Friday morning. “The Mile looks like a nice way to develop him. It’s the next step.”

Omaha Beach is scheduled to go to stud at Spendthrift next year, but there is still time following the Breeders’ Cup for more races, culminating with the Pegasus World Cup in January.

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.