From a Beyer Speed Figure standpoint, Welder turned in the biggest performance on Sunday’s card of 10 stakes at Remington Park. He earned a 96 for his victory in the $150,000 David M. Vance, the highest on the program, which included the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby and Grade 3, $200,000 Remington Park Oaks.
“I can’t even talk right now,” trainer Theresa Luneack said in the winner’s circle after watching the Oklahoma-bred Welder defeat a strong field of open rivals in the Vance.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’s a great time to be a sports fan in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky football team is undefeated, the highly ranked UK basketball team is about to host Big Blue Madness, and perhaps best of all, Keeneland is flinging open its gates as autumn hits full stride.
It’s enough to make anyone load up the cooler and the wallet and get in on the action. The first such opportunity will come Friday as the 17-day fall meet opens with a terrific 10-race card.
They were stabled across the street from each other in New Jersey. They began their racing careers in the same race in Delaware. They each won graded stakes in New York.
Saturday, by running in Grade 1 stakes in different states, Call Paul and Mind Control hope to punch their tickets for a reunion of sorts in Kentucky in next month’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Double Touch won the restricted Wickerr Stakes in a 29-1 surprise at Del Mar on July 22, retaining the victory after a lengthy stewards’ inquiry involving a roughly run final furlong.
The Wickerr was trainer Dan Blacker’s first stakes win. The 36-year-old Blacker can win his first graded stakes if Double Touch prevails in Saturday’s Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A blood test revealed that Abel Tasman was dealing with an illness when she finished fifth as the 1-10 favorite in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita last Sunday.
The champion 3-year-old filly of 2017, Abel Tasman remains on schedule for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, trainer Bob Baffert said.
“She’s fighting something off,” Baffert said on Wednesday. “She had a legitimate excuse. She’ll be all right.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Corey Nakatani, who was injured in a spill at Del Mar on Aug. 4, underwent surgeries on his neck and back in late September and faces a lengthy recovery for an expected return to riding, according to his son and agent, Matt Nakatani.
The two operations fused vertebrae in Nakatani’s back and repaired a disc in his neck, his son said. Matt Nakatani said his father faces a “multi-month” recovery.
“The doctors didn’t put a timeline on his comeback,” Matt Nakatani said.
Battle of Midway will be able to claim a unique distinction were he to win the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile for the second year in a row on Nov. 3. He would not be the first two-time winner – think Goldencents – but rather he would be the first to win the race at a two different configurations.
Battle of Midway won the Dirt Mile at two turns last year at Del Mar. This year, the race will be run at one turn with the move back to Churchill Downs.
Mind Your Biscuits is so versatile that he could be a major player in three Breeders’ Cup races, ranging from the 1 1/4-mile Classic to the Dirt Mile to the six-furlong Sprint.
After Mind Your Biscuits won the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic last Saturday at Churchill Downs, trainer and co-owner Chad Summers now must decide whether to stretch him out even farther in the $6 million Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs or to cut him back in distance.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Not only have purses been fattened here at Keeneland, with the projected per-day average of $738,000 being a track record, but the money will be substantially bigger at the Churchill fall meet, which begins Oct. 28.
Maiden-special races at Churchill will be worth as much as $76,000, and allowances will range from $82,000 to $85,000.
Both tracks are reaping the benefits of the historical racing machines at facilities nearby – The Red Mile in Lexington and the brand-new Derby City Gaming in Louisville.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainers Tom Amoss and Steve Asmussen, both longtime regulars on the Kentucky circuit, are riding some serious momentum into this fall Keeneland meet.
Amoss not only sent out Serengeti Empress to an eye-catching triumph in the Pocahontas Stakes while topping the trainer standings at the 11-day September meet at Churchill Downs, but he won the Oklahoma Derby on Sunday night at Remington Park when Lone Sailor eked out a victory in a three-way photo.
