One unlucky bettor suffered a terribly difficult beat in the Rainbow 6 at Laurel Park on Saturday after the scratch of a horse during the warmup resulted in a live ticket being transferred to race favorite, Confessor, who won. Because of the scratch, Confessor, who had been scheduled to take down the entire Rainbow 6 pool, had two live tickets riding on him in the Rainbow 6, resulting in a Sunday carryover.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Accelerate, McKinzie, and West Coast, three of the leading contenders in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs, all could not have looked better in their final drills for the race on Saturday morning at Santa Anita.
They were three of 11 locally based horses who are scheduled to run in Breeders’ Cup races next weekend who worked on Saturday.
At age 67, jockey Tony Black is on something of a hot streak.
Black won the opening race on Saturday at Parx Racing aboard Lendar, who rallied from far back over a sloppy track to score by 1 1/4 lengths in a conditioned $12,500 claiming sprint. The win was the second for Black in his last three rides.
That does come with a caveat, however. The win also was Black's second of the year from 13 rides. He won his first race of 2018 on Popizar on Sept. 30. Both horses are trained by Richie Vega.
Glorious Empire, the multiple graded stakes-winning 7-year-old gelding, completed preparations for next Saturday’s $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs by working seven furlongs in 1:27.60 over the synthetic surface at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland on Saturday morning.
Trainer James “Chucky” Lawrence II said he caught Glorious Empire’s final eighth in 11.80 seconds. It was Glorious Empire’s sixth workout of six furlongs or longer since he won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer on Aug. 25 at Saratoga.
Lone Sailor will run in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs, trainer Tom Amoss said Saturday, a decision that has major implications regarding the prospective field.
As a result, Seeking the Soul remains the bubble horse, ranked 15th, assuming that City of Light - as expected - goes in the Dirt Mile. City of Light was pre-entered in both races, with the Dirt Mile preferred.
The Classic field has a maximum of 14 runners. Collected needs two defections to get in. Entries are taken Monday, and posts drawn that afternoon.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Saturday’s 10-race card at Belmont Park was canceled due to dangerously high winds associated with a powerful coastal storm forecast to impact Long Island and the New York City area throughout the day.
Simulcasting was to go on as scheduled at Belmont and Aqueduct.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Bold Ruler Handicap has been rescheduled for Friday’s opening-day card at Aqueduct. It will be redrawn today.
The $100,000 Awad Stakes and the $100,000 English Channel Stakes have been rescheduled for Nov. 4 at Aqueduct. Those races will be redrawn on Thursday.
LOUISVILLE, KY. – Cold, damp, and dreary.
That pretty much sums up training hours Friday morning at Churchill Downs, where a steady drizzle made the unseasonably cool temperature feel even cooler. The main track was eventually downgraded from good to sloppy, and the turf course was listed as yielding when opened for business at 9:45 a.m.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Game Winner has yet to lose, and trainer Bob Baffert hopes to keep him that way through the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs. Baffert has put Game Winner through a series of varied workouts, which on Friday at Santa Anita included working him inside the 3-year-old Ax Man in his final preparation for the Juvenile.
“He’s got to be ready for anything,” Baffert said. “Inside, outside, on the lead, coming from behind. I want him to be able to handle everything.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Bob Baffert was planning on sending nine horses to the Breeders’ Cup, and he worked five of them Friday, but the unbeaten Dream Tree came out of her work with an entrapped epiglottis that will need surgery and she is out of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, he said.
Dream Tree worked fast, a half-mile in 46.80 seconds under Drayden Van Dyke, but she struggled to best her company and was “making noise” after the work, Baffert said. An endoscopic examination minutes later at the barn revealed the issue.
