Fri, 05/24/2019 - 14:46

Texas Belle streaking into Lone Star Park Turf Stakes

Coady Photography
Texas Belle wins the San Jacinto Stakes for Texas-breds on March 23.

Texas Belle brings a hot streak into the $100,000 Lone Star Park Turf Stakes on Monday. She will be looking for her fourth consecutive win when she runs in the new one-mile race for fillies and mares that drew a field of nine, including multiple stakes winner Adore and Kentucky invader Sensitive.

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 13:56

Gray Magician, Galilean will soon resume training

Emily Shields
Gray Magician is back at San Luis Rey Downs with trainer Peter Miller.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gray Magician, last of 19 in the Kentucky Derby on May 4, and Galilean, fifth in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on April 13, will return to training in coming weeks.

Gray Magician, who was second in the Group 2 United Arab Emirates Derby in Dubai on March 30, was recently flown from Kentucky to trainer Peter Miller’s California base at the San Luis Rey Downs training center. Miller said Thursday there are no specific race plans for Gray Magician, but that the Grade 3 Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand is under consideration.

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 13:50

Kyle Frey nears return to riding at Santa Anita

Coady Photography
Kyle Frey has been sidelined since last summer after injuring his knee.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Kyle Frey, the champion apprentice jockey of 2011, is nearing a return to riding after undergoing knee surgery last September.

Frey, 27, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament when he was unseated in a post parade at Del Mar last July. In the last week, Frey has resumed exercising horses at Santa Anita. He has not set a time for his return.

“I’ve been around for about a week,” he said Thursday morning. “I’m doing everything to get back sooner rather than later.

“I’m taking it day by day. I feel good.”

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 13:50

Temperamental Desert Stone on brink of winning a graded stakes

Emily Shields
Desert Stone (No. 7) just missed winning the Mathis Brother Mile. He will run Monday in the Grade 1 Shoemaker.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A second in the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile in December and a troubled third in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on March 30 has left Desert Stone close to winning a graded stakes.

One of these days, trainer Richard Baltas thinks, the promising 4-year-old colt is going to deliver.

“If he wins one of these, it will be a big deal,” Baltas said.

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 12:16

Ellis Park purses to average a record $330,000 per day; one addition to stakes schedule

Record purses will be offered at the 29-day summer meet at Ellis Park in western Kentucky, where officials are projecting per-day payouts of about $330,000. That figure is more than double the $155,000 average paid out in 2015.

The stakes schedule remains virtually the same, with one addition to Kentucky Downs Preview Day on Aug. 4. In all, nine stakes worth at least $100,000 are on the schedule, led by the annual meet highlight, the Grade 3, $125,000 Groupie Doll on Aug. 11.

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 12:10

By My Standards back in training after 11th-place finish in Kentucky Derby

Barbara D. Livingston
By My Standards is back in training for Bret Calhoun following his 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – By My Standards, the Louisiana Derby winner who was 11th in the Kentucky Derby, has returned to training after getting nearly two weeks off, with his next start still to be determined.

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 11:56

Edgewood upsetter Concrete Rose to breeze Sunday

Barbara D. Livingston
Concrete Rose scored a major upset in the Edgewood Stakes under jockey Julien Leparoux.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Concrete Rose will have her first workout since her stunning upset of Newspaperofrecord when breezing Sunday at Keeneland.

Trainer Rusty Arnold acknowledged the work comes more than three weeks since Concrete Rose swept past the previously undefeated Newspaperofrecord in the May 3 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs, saying “it was designed this way. Everything is good with the filly.”

Concrete Rose is being pointed to the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 6, when she could be rematched with Newspaperofrecord going 1 1/4 miles.

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 11:36

Queen's Plate Watch: Federal Law on the improve ahead of Plate Trial

Michael Burns
Federal Law (right) edges stablemate My Silencer to win Sunday's Queenston Stakes at Woodbine.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Following a gutsy win in last Sunday’s Queenston Stakes at Woodbine, trainer Mark Casse feels he has Federal Law back on track and is looking toward the $1 million Queen’s Plate on June 29.

“We feel we’re on track for the Queen’s Plate with him,” he said. “His race the other day was extremely good, given he had a rough trip and it looked like he wasn’t going to get the job done. For him to overcome that I thought was pretty impressive.”

Thu, 05/23/2019 - 15:40

Last season's stars help kick off 2019 Arapahoe meet

Coady Photography
Scott Stevens piloted Galactic Princess to three stakes wins in 2018 at Arapahoe Park, including the July 7 Spicy.

Galactic Princess and jockey Scott Stevens teamed to win three stakes races last season at Arapahoe Park and both are back to launch the track’s new season Saturday in the featured $30,000 Ingrid Knotts.

Arapahoe, located in Aurora, Colo., will race 39 days through Aug. 11. The mixed meet features Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. Arapahoe will race every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and has Friday cards on May 31, June 28, July 26, and Aug. 9.

Thu, 05/23/2019 - 15:23

Virginia Derby tops 17-race Colonial Downs stakes schedule

Colonial Downs will hold 17 stakes worth a total of $1.8 million during its 15-day meet that will run from Aug. 8 through Sept. 7.

This will be the first Thoroughbred racing at Colonial Downs since 2013. The New Kent, Va., track first opened in 1997 but closed in 2014 when the track’s owner and its horsemen could not come to terms on a meeting.

New Kent is located between Richmond and Williamsburg, approximately 140 miles south of Washington, D.C.