HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Lady Apple emerged from her gutsy win in the Grade 3, $500,000 Fantasy on Friday at Oaklawn Park in good order and will soon ship to Churchill Downs for a possible start in the Kentucky Oaks.
“She flies Monday to Churchill, obviously to consider running her in the Oaks,” trainer Steve Asmussen said Saturday.
“We’re very proud of her run yesterday. We want to see the same amount of confidence in her for the next race, wherever it is.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tyler Gaffalione was smiling as he and War of Will walked back to the barn. If horses could smile, War of Will might have matched his rider.
"He had running on his mind today," Gaffalione said after Kentucky Derby candidate War of Will worked a sharp five furlongs from the gate in 59 seconds flat on Saturday morning at Keeneland. "He came back happy. He's real proud of himself."
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer William Morey, who has not started any horses since March 29 after an apparent medication violation at Santa Anita that day, has dispersed his Santa Anita-based runners, with some going to other trainers here and others shipped off the property.
Del Mar has raised overnight purses and has enhanced financial incentives for horses brought to California from other states or countries for its summer meeting, which runs from July 17 to Sept. 2.
Overnight purses will have moderate increases. A maiden special weight race will be worth $61,000, an increase of $1,000 from the summer meeting in 2018, while a $20,000 claimer for maidens will be worth $21,000 an increase of $1,000. The purse for a $25,000 claimer has been increased by $1,000, to $35,000.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – At Gulfstream Park on Friday, trainer Stanley Gold sent his Kentucky Oaks candidate Cookie Dough out to work five furlongs in 58.40 from the 4 1/2-furlong pole, according to track clockers. She zipped through early splits of 22.00 and 33.80 before tiring some late while finishing a sixteenth of a mile beyond the wire and galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.40.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Robert Yanez, a former jockey who later worked in the stable office on the Del Mar backstretch, died on Tuesday of injuries sustained in a car accident earlier this year, Del Mar officials announced.
Yanez was 75. He was injured on March 5 when his car was struck by a drunk driver in Ramona, Calif., officials said.
Yanez joined the Del Mar backstretch staff in 1995 and worked as an assistant stall superintendent.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher had to catch a flight out of town Friday. But before heading to the airport, Pletcher spent the early morning hours sending out more than two dozen horses to work at his winter-spring headquarters at Palm Beach Downs, a group that included potential Kentucky Derby starters Cutting Humor and Spinoff.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita has canceled races on its hillside turf course through April, according to a notice on Sunday’s overnight.
Five races scheduled for about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside course from April 19 to April 28 will be offered at five furlongs on turf, and one race scheduled for 1 1/4 miles on turf on April 27 will now be run at 1 1/8 miles.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – With no stakes here Sunday on a nine-race card, the next such races are set for next week with the Grade 3 Doubledogdare on Friday and the Grade 2 Elkhorn on Saturday.
Blue Prize, who enjoyed a breakthrough 2018 when she earned $730,893, all for Merriebelle Stable and trainer Ignacio Correas, will make her seasonal debut in the 1 1/16-mile Doubledogdare. Zulu Alpha, winner of the Sycamore here last fall, figures to be favored in the Elkorn at 1 1/2 miles on turf.
