ELMONT, N.Y. – She has won five graded stakes, seven stakes overall and earned more than $1 million. The only thing Farrell hasn’t done is win a Grade 1 race.
She will have a terrific opportunity to achieve that milestone in Saturday’s $400,000 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park. Farrell drew the outside post in a field of eight fillies and mares, none of whom has won a Grade 1 stakes in North America.
Trainer Larry Jones won one of the first runnings of the Zia Park Oaks – the marquee race at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M. – back in 2014 with Cassatt. Jones said he might return for the 1 1/16-mile stakes Nov. 21 with Hold Her Tight.
Hold Her Tight last raced Sunday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Remington Park Oaks. She broke from post 10 in the 1 1/16-mile race and finished fourth, three lengths behind winner She’s a Julie.
“She was looking good coming around the turn,” Jones said. “I jumped on and started riding, and I’m overweight!
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott announced a few weeks ago that Mucho, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Hopeful, would be turned out for the remainder of the year. But Mott’s 2-year-old cupboard is hardly bare.
Mott will be a participant in both Grade 1 stakes run in the division this weekend, including with Casa Creed in Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park. The Champagne, a Win and You’re In for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs, drew a field of 10 topped by Grade 2 Saratoga Special winner Call Paul.
Pop Keenan was the first Remington Park starter for Kentucky Derby-winning trainer John Servis, and he finished a fast-closing third in the $150,000 David M. Vance on Sunday. The next stop could be Belmont Park.
Servis said Pop Keenan will be considered for the Grade 3, $200,000 Bold Ruler at seven furlongs Oct. 27. Pop Keenan was to fly back to his Parx Racing base Wednesday.
Pop Keenan found himself farther back than usual in the Vance. He closed from last and just missed second by a neck.
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.
