ELMONT, N.Y. – With all due respect to the Belmont Stakes, the marquee race on Saturday’s 13-race, 10-stakes program at Belmont Park may be the Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap.
The nine horses entered Tuesday for the prestigious Met Mile have amassed a record of 53 wins from 124 starts, including 38 stakes wins, 32 of them group or graded, and earnings of $25,860,598.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Even though their stable star Johnny Bear is sidelined, Colebrook Farms and trainer Ashlee Brnjas have gotten off to a hot start at the meet. Through Sunday, Brnjas ranked fourth in the standings with eight wins from 25 starters, a 32 percent win clip.
Brnjas said the chemistry she has with her new assistant trainer Patrick Dixon has been a key part of her success. Dixon was the assistant to trainer Reade Baker, who retired last fall.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wonder Gadot, the 2018 Canadian Horse of the Year, has been retired by owner Gary Barber, trainer Mark Casse said on Tuesday.
Wonder Gadot was Canada’s champion 2-year-old filly in 2017. After enduring a heartbreaking loss in last year’s Kentucky Oaks, she also finished second in the Woodbine Oaks.
Wonder Gadot went on to crush the boys in both the Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes, performances that were instrumental in her being voted the Sovereign Award for Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly last year.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There was so much excitement over War of Will getting on the track Tuesday morning at Belmont Park that sirens went off.
The sirens, actually, were to warn riders that there were two loose horses, both of whom dislodged their riders not long after War of Will stepped on the track for his morning training. One was caught by an outrider, the other left the gap by the 1 1/4-mile pole, with War of Will biding his time near the outside fence until it was safe to proceed.
Mark Simms Jr. will never forget the feeling he got Saturday night when Kaziranga rallied to win the sixth race. It was the first victory at a top-tiered racetrack for Simms, a former assistant for Dale Romans, since he began his training career two years ago.
“Dreams do come true,” said Simms, 30.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Thunder Snow won the Dubai World Cup in 2018 and went winless in four races before winning the World Cup again in March.
His connections believe they made a mistake by giving him an extended break following his victory in the 2018 Dubai World Cup. This year, they are eschewing a break for a potentially busy North America campaign that begins in Saturday’s robust renewal of the Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A couple of $97,000 first-level allowance sprints will serve as bookend co-features when another four-day race week at Churchill gets started with an eight-race Thursday program.
The opener on the eight-race card, which starts at 5 p.m. Eastern, is the first allowance for 2-year-olds on the circuit this year. John Hancock has the program favorite in the five-furlong race in Alec and Arthur, while his younger brother and fellow trainer Jack Hancock has the second choice in Secretly Wicked. Both horses were first-out maiden winners in April at Keeneland.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chris Hartman can only wish the Aristides was run more often at Churchill Downs.
“That’d be really nice, wouldn’t it?” Hartman said, knowing full well his outstanding record in the Grade 3 race.
Hartman won the $125,000 Aristides on Saturday night with Wilbo, giving him a third victory in the six-furlong race since he left his longtime circuit in the far southwest a little more than four years ago. He won the 2015 and 2016 renewals with Alsvid, and for good measure Wilbo ran second in 2017 and third in 2018.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The old saying exhorts horsemen to keep their stock in the worst company and themselves in the best.
Anyway, there was trainer Naipaul Chatterpaul on the Belmont backstretch Sunday, the Hempstead Turnpike just over a vine-choked fence, hanging with stable-hands sipping Coronas in surprisingly intense late-morning sun, a gaggle of roosters yelling at each other on the scene’s periphery.
Jack Sisterson had confidence Coachwhip would be just fine in her first start over a synthetic surface last weekend in the Grade 3 Matron Stakes at Arlington.
“She trains well on dirt and runs well on turf and going into this race we thought the surface wasn’t going to be an issue,” said Sisterson, who trains Coachwhip for her breeder, Calumet Farm. “I’m not right very often.”
