Tax has been scratched from the Oklahoma Derby and could train up to the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita, trainer Danny Gargan said on Sunday.
Tax was to start as one of the top choices in the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday at Remington Park for a record that includes a win in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga. He shipped into Oklahoma City on Wednesday from his base of Belmont Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Omaha Beach, unraced since a win in the Arkansas Derby in April, zoomed a fast half-mile at Santa Anita on Friday.
Officially, Omaha Beach was timed in 46.60 seconds, but trainer Richard Mandella recorded the workout in 46 seconds, as did some people watching with him.
“A couple of us got 46 flat,” Mandella said.
Regardless, Omaha Beach had a quick workout in advance of a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs on Oct. 5. The $300,000 Sprint Championship will be the shortest race of Omaha Beach’s career.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tyler Baze will resume riding at Santa Anita on a full-time basis Oct. 5 after spending most of the last six months in the Midwest.
Baze rode primarily at Oaklawn Park, throughout Kentucky, and spent some weekdays at Del Mar during the summer. Baze has won five stakes since mid-April at Midwest tracks.
“I was able to get my name out there,” he said in an interview earlier this week.
“I wanted to ride for new trainers and the guys that don’t know me. I think it was a good run. I got to ride first call for Steve Asmussen at Ellis Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Mitole, the multiple Grade 1 winner, breezed a half-mile in 50.13 seconds Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track. It was his first work since he won the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga on Aug. 24.
The Steve Asmussen-trained Mitole is to make his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 2. He is expected to ship to Southern California on Monday along with stablemate Midnight Bisou, a Breeders’ Cup Distaff contender who was to have had her final prep in Saturday’s Grade 2 Beldame at Belmont.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Barclay Tagg is in a quandary about where to next run Tiz the Law.
Does he take a swing and run the debut winner in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne, or take the more conservative approach and point to races like the $250,000 Sleepy Hollow for New York-breds on Oct. 19 or the Grade 3, $150,000 Nashua at Aqueduct on Nov. 3?
“I’d love to run him in the Champagne but I don’t know if off that one maiden race it’d be a good idea,” Tagg said Friday. “He certainly acts like nothing fazes him.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Code of Honor may be the most high-profile 3-year-old in trainer Shug McGaughey’s barn, but he is far from being the only talented one.
Performer, a son of Speightstown, has won both his starts this year. Sunday, he will try to stretch out in distance when he runs 1 1/16 miles in a second-level allowance that goes as race 7 on Belmont Park’s nine-race card.
Jockey Luis Saez will be back Sunday at Churchill for the first time since the historic disqualification of his mount Maximum Security from first to 17th in the May 4 Kentucky Derby.
Saez will be in from New York primarily to ride the maiden Necker Island for Sagamore Farm and trainer Stan Hough in the eighth race. The 2-year-old Hard Spun colt was a troubled third in his career debut on closing weekend of the Saratoga meet.
“He ran pretty well first out, so much that Luis wanted to ride him back,” said Sagamore manager Hunter Rankin. “We’re glad to have him.”
Mr. Money, second by a neck in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx last Saturday, resumed training this week at Churchill and likely will make his next start in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita, said trainer Bret Calhoun.
“It was a pretty brutal beat,” said Calhoun, “but the colt came back good and we’re happy with him. We’ll watch how he trains and keep the Dirt Mile as our first option.”
Calhoun said that another option for Mr. Money is to wait until the Grade 1 Clark here Nov. 29.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The seasonal turnover of stall space has been ongoing at Keeneland as officials at the Lexington, Ky., track continue their preparations for the 17-day fall meet.
Yearlings who went through the sales ring earlier this month have been displaced by active racehorses throughout the barn area at Keeneland, where an action-packed, front-loaded meet will get under way Friday. Ten stakes will be run during the first three days, known as FallStars Weekend.
Fair Grounds is hoping adding distance will add appeal to its 3-year-old dirt-route stakes races in 2020.
The New Orleans track disseminated a news release Wednesday announcing its 2019-2020 stakes schedule, which reportedly was published online last week. The program includes 56 stakes worth $7.13 million, or almost the same overall stakes commitment as last season, when the track hosted 56 stakes worth $6.89 million.
