ARCADIA, Calif. – Delta Prince, an outstanding New York-based turf miler, and Sharp Samurai, a high-class California comebacker, will help make the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on May 27 the strongest turf stakes this year in California.
It is fitting, since the Shoemaker is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge event for the BC Mile.
Delta Prince and Sharp Samurai will tackle Catapult, Ohio, Blitzkrieg, and possibly Bolo and River Boyne in the $500,000 Shoemaker.
Luis Saez has filed an appeal of a 15-day suspension handed down by the stewards at Churchill Downs for his ride on Maximum Security during the May 4 Kentucky Derby, according to his attorney. Saez also filed a request for a stay of the suspension until his appeal can be heard.
BALTIMORE - The Maryland Jockey Club added two new Win and You’re In races for the Preakness this year, bringing the total to three. All three have made it into the entries.
The Federico Tesio has been a Preakness Win and You’re In since 2015. This year’s Tesio winner Alwaysmining will make the race 4 for 5 in producing Preakness starters.
BALTIMORE - The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and radio personality Steve Byk were among the honorees Thursday morning at the annual Alibi Breakfast in the Pimlico clubhouse.
The TAA, which has given more than $14 million in grants to accredited Thoroughbred aftercare agencies, was honored with the Special Award of Merit for positive impact on the racing industry. Byk, host of the long-running “At the Races,” was given the Old Hilltop Award for career excellence in racing coverage.
BALTIMORE - The potential return on investment for his owners may not exactly be ideal, but the sporting aspect came into play when Ten Strike Racing and Madaket Stables ponied up a $150,000 supplementary fee to make Warrior’s Charge eligible to the Preakness.
Even if the colt wins the $1.65 million race, the net payoff for the owners would be less than $1 million, which translates to something like 5-1. Warrior’s Charge surely will be longer odds than that.
“They’re gamers,” trainer Brad Cox said of the owners. “They think we have a live one. The money is secondary.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – The small framed picture that hangs on the back wall of trainer Mark Hennig’s Belmont Park office shows Personal Hope at the quarter pole of the 1993 Kentucky Derby with a clear lead and seemingly in hand under Gary Stevens.
“How many horses you see turning for home at the quarter pole under wraps like that and not win?” Hennig said.
Personal Hope still had the lead in midstretch, but Jerry Bailey and Sea Hero were about to go by him. Two others did as well in the last sixteenth of a mile, and Personal Hope finished fourth, beaten 2 3/4 lengths.
BALTIMORE – You can take trainer Blaine Wright out of the Pacific Northwest, but you can’t take the Pacific Northwest out of Blaine Wright.
Wright arrived at Pimlico Race Course on Wednesday morning to look over his Preakness entrant Anothertwistafate while wearing a Seattle Seahawks cap and an Emerald Downs jacket. He’s Washington through and through, and fiercely proud of those roots.
BALTIMORE – Improbable drew post 4 and was installed as the favorite when a field of 13 was entered and posts drawn on Wednesday for the 144th Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.
But the big news was that War of Will, who landed the rail for his troubled trip in the Kentucky Derby, again drew the inside.
Just prior to the draw, Mark Casse, who trains War of Will, said, “Anything but 1.” When that post was called, he just put his head down and shook it from side to side.
Trainer Kelly Rubley and jockey Daniel Centeno have worked long and hard to reach the 144th Preakness Stakes. Alwaysmining, the Maryland-bred gelding with whom they will team, has taken a far easier path, which makes it difficult to determine how he will stack up in what will be by far the toughest race of his career.
Alwaysmining is a son of Travers and Cigar Mile winner Stay Thirsty, who began his stallion career at Ashford Stud in 2013 but is now standing in California for a $6,000 fee. Alwaysmining’s dam is the blue-collar racemare What Will Be, who won four of 33 starts.
