LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bob Baffert already has enjoyed a huge year at Churchill Downs. The Hall of Fame trainer won the Kentucky Derby for the fifth time, and Justify went on to sweep the Triple Crown while using Churchill as a primary training base.
But wait, there could be more.
When Charles Town holds its richer open stakes, horses typically ship in from out of town and walk away with the top awards. But on Saturday, in the $300,000 Charles Town Oaks, owner-trainer Javier Contreras scored one for the home team with the West Virginia-bred filly Late Night Pow Wow.
The victory was the first in a graded stakes for Contreras, who has been training since the mid-1980s.
“It means everything – that all the hard work we do is worth it, not just for me but for all my help,” Contreras said. “Sunday we were all so happy doing our jobs. It means a lot.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - West Coast, last year's champion 3-year-old male who has not raced since finishing second in the Dubai World Cup in March, is likely to return to action on Saturday in the Grade 1, $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita in a prep for his main goal, the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Louisiana Downs moved the Grade 3, $300,000 Super Derby back to dirt after a one-year experiment on the turf, and plans are to keep the race on the main track, said Louisiana Downs director of racing David Heitzmann. The date of the race, however, will have a slight change for 2019.
The Super Derby was run Sunday, Sept. 2, this year, and will be moved to the second Saturday in September next year, Heitzmann said.
“There was so much going on that weekend,” said Heitzmann, referring to Labor Day weekend.
The Smarty Jones show is coming to Remington Park.
Well, sort of.
John Servis, who trained Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Smarty Jones, intends to start a pair of colts exiting a race named for his most famous trainee in the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday at Remington Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like many of his local colleagues who are year-round South Florida racing veterans, trainer David Fawkes targets the Florida Sire Stakes as soon as the first batch of 2-year-olds arrives at the barn each spring.
Fawkes has been very successful with the series over the years, including a sweep of the open division with Big Drama in 2008. One of the stallion races that has eluded him, however, is the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl, the finale of the filly division of the series.
The 2-year-old colt Fog of War emerged from his impressive win in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 16 with an injured shin that will force him to miss the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and preclude him from racing again this year, trainer Chad Brown said Monday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The main track at Parx may have been slow on Saturday afternoon, but top sprinter Imperial Hint made it look fast Sunday morning when he worked a half-mile in 46.40 seconds in preparation for a scheduled start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park.
The work was the fastest of 18 at the distance over a track labeled “good.” The second-fastest half-mile time Sunday morning was 48.11 seconds.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to Diversify, Irad Ortiz Jr. has been aboard for the good times and the bad. Entering Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, Ortiz believes the 5-year-old gelding has never been better.
“I think so,” Ortiz said Sunday at Belmont. “He’s doing so good, doing things very easy. I worked him the last couple of times, and the last time I don’t move and he went fast.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One never knows when a person’s greatest ambition will be fulfilled at the racetrack. It happened in the first race Sunday at Churchill for Josue Irizarry when he sent out a filly named Miss Altamira to win a maiden-claiming race, giving the trainer his first win with just his second career starter.
“I’m very, very happy,” Irizarry said early Monday from the Thoroughbred training center in Lexington, Ky., where he has Miss Altamira and one other horse in training.
