ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert plans to have as many as 10 runners in Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 2-3 at Churchill Downs, he said Sunday.
Baffert will have three runners in the BC Classic on Nov. 3 – Collected and West Coast, who were second and third in the 2017 running at Del Mar, and the 3-year-old McKinzie, who won the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 22.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dixie Moon capped her 2018 season on a high note with a half-length victory over Avie’s Mineshaft in Saturday’s $125,000 Carotene Stakes on Woodbine’s turf course.
Trainer Catherine Day Phillips said Dixie Moon would spend the next couple of weeks on the farm before determining whether to resume her training ahead of a potential winter campaign.
“We’ll give here a little break now, and she’ll be ready to go again by January,” she said. “We’ll just let her tell us if she wants a little more time or a little less time.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mac Robertson had a minor quibble with the Keeneland stewards the morning after Beach Flower was disqualified Sunday from first to third in the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes, but he has enough experience in racing not to throw a tantrum.
“I thought I had the best horse in the race, and I’m really proud of my filly,” said Robertson, who has won 1,223 races from 5,339 starters and is the all-time leading trainer in Canterbury Park history. “I thought her number probably should’ve stayed up, but nobody likes a crybaby.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Jonathan Thomas wanted to see how Catholic Boy handles the Churchill Downs surface and give him a stamina-enhancing work two weeks out from the Breeders' Cup Classic, and it was thumbs up all around after the Travers winner breezed an easy five furlongs in 1:02.41 under the lights early Sunday morning.
After joining the 5,000-win club Saturday at Belmont Park, Javier Castellano hopped a plane and flew to Louisville that evening to be on hand when the racetrack opened for training at 5:30 a.m. to guide Catholic Boy through the important work.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown is expected to pre-enter 11 horses on Monday in the two-day Breeders’ Cup event to be held Nov. 2-3 at Churchill Downs. On Sunday, led by potential race favorites Sistercharlie and Newspaperofrecord, nine of those horses put in workouts with seven of them at Belmont Park.
Sistercharlie, a three-time Grade 1 winner, breezed five furlongs in 1:00.78 over the good Belmont inner turf course. She worked inside of Uni, and got her last three furlongs in 34.85 seconds with a strong wind at the horses’ backs in the stretch.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unbeaten in four starts, Catalina Cruiser will start as the expected favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3 with a growing reputation in the nation’s older horse division.
On Sunday, Catalina Cruiser had his most strenuous workout of October, a seven-furlong exercise in 1:26.60 at Santa Anita. Trainer John Sadler clocked the 4-year-old colt galloping out a mile in “1:39 and change.”
After a five-furlong workout next Saturday, Catalina Cruiser will be sent to Kentucky for the biggest race of his career.
Ninth Street became a stakes winner Saturday night when he rolled home by six lengths over Shotsoft in the $50,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs. The race was one of two stakes on the card. Sir Genghis was a half-length winner of the $100,000 Gold Cup.
The Jean Lafitte was a seven-furlong race for 2-year-olds run around two turns.
Taylor’s Spirit will likely make her next start at Fair Grounds after winning the third stakes race of her young career Friday night in the $50,000 My Trusty Cat at Delta Downs. Trainer Scott Gelner said Taylor’s Spirit is a candidate for the $75,000 Letellier Memorial, a six-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies on Dec. 22.
Down the road, Gelner said Taylor’s Spirit could return to Delta for the $75,000 Take Charge Brandi over 7 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 4. He said she also could see stakes action at Oaklawn.
Shotgun Kowboy could make one more start at the Remington Park meet before gearing up for a campaign at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark.
Trainer C.R. Trout said the millionaire, who won the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup for the third time in his career Friday night, could run next in the $75,000 Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial on Remington's closing-day card Dec. 16.
But the first order of business, said Trout, is a little break for Shotgun Kowboy.
