ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Martin Garcia returned home Thursday after his release from Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Calif., following a spill on Wednesday at Santa Anita.
Garcia was treated for a concussion and kept overnight. According to his agent, Thom Mitchell, Garcia was home resting and scheduled for a follow-up examination Friday.
“I’m going to have to get him cleared by the doctors before he can ride,” Mitchell said. “He’s feeling good, no broken bones.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The field for the Grade 2, $200,000 City of Hope Mile is expected to include Sharp Samurai and Fly to Mars, who were second and third in the Del Mar Mile. Fly to Mars finished second, but was disqualified and placed third for causing interference in the stretch.
The City of Hope Mile is one of six Breeders’ Cup prep races at Santa Anita from Oct. 6-8.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Top California turf milers Catapult and Hunt will each have his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, their trainers said Friday.
Hunt earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile with his win in the Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita in May. Trainer Phil D’Amato said Hunt may benefit from being trained up to the BC Mile and not having a final prep in Saturday’s Grade 2 City of Hope Mile at Santa Anita.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 11-day September meet at Churchill will end in relatively quiet fashion Sunday, with two allowances anchoring a 10-race card that will start at 12:45 p.m. Eastern under bright sunshine.
Race 3 is a $58,000 first-level turf mile, with Ice City Ghost, winner of the Sunday Silence at Louisiana Downs as a maiden earlier this month, among the main contenders in a compact field of 2-year-olds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With the Breeders’ Cup set to return to Churchill Downs for the first time in seven years, local racing fans will be able to see many Breeders’ Cup hopefuls in their final preps when the 17-day Keeneland fall meet opens Friday in Lexington, Ky.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Not until the fall do 2-year-olds usually get a chance to stretch out around two turns on dirt on the Southern California circuit, but there’s often a rare spot afforded maidens toward the end of the Del Mar meeting, and for Gunmetal Gray, it proved pivotal.
Autumn Warrior, winner of the Prelude Stakes last month at Louisiana Downs, will likely make his next start in the $100,000 Gold Cup at Delta Downs, trainer Al Stall Jr. said Tuesday The one-mile race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana is Oct. 20.
The Gold Cup often springboards runners into the Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds.
Louisiana Downs, which was to close its meet Wednesday, will begin offering training center services – including published workouts – on Nov. 15, according to the track’s director of racing, David Heitzmann. The stall space will be available for Thoroughbreds for a per diem rate through March 19.
Heitzmann said the decision to open for training this winter and into the spring is to fill a void left by the recent closure of the Evangeline Downs Training Center near Lafayette, La.
Despite racing five fewer days, the all-sources mutuel handle of $74,149,864 at Emerald Downs this year was up 6.6 percent compared with the $69,581,303 wagered in 2017. The 67-day meet concluded Sunday.
The daily average of $1,106,714 was up by 14.5 percent over last year’s average of $966,406.
The daily ontrack average was up slightly, $159,223 compared to $157,246. The average attendance was virtually unchanged, 3,741 this year opposed to 3,748 in 2017.
The average field size of 7.04 starters per race was up marginally from 6.99 last year.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Cookie Dough figured to be a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $400,000 My Dear Girl Stakes coming off her one-sided victory four weeks earlier in the Susan’s Girl Stakes. But it remains to be seen how the betting public will treat the Arindel homebred after she drew post 12 in an overflow field of 13 juvenile fillies entered for the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl, the final leg of the fillies’ division of the Florida Sire Series.
