Marvin Johnson was running out of options last year with the 5-year-old gelding Bizerk. Bizerk, whom Johnson bred, owns, and trains, had talent that looked useful for an Indiana-bred early in his career, but last summer Johnson dropped him all the way down to $5,000 conditioned claimers, and Bizerk still required three tries to notch a win.
Well, that took a little doing.
Desani’s Chance began his career in February 2011. Last Sunday in the seventh race at Arlington, he won for the first time.
Desani’s Chance is a 10-year-old now. In July, he returned from a layoff – a very long layoff. It had been nearly seven years since Desani’s Chance had started in a race.
Valorie Lund, who grew up on a farm in western Oregon, was driving a horse trailer down a rainy highway in central Iowa on Wednesday morning. Five horses and one stall full of flowers from her Canterbury Park barn rode along behind her, but the star of the string she trains, the Minnesota-bred Mr. Jagermeister, remained back at Canterbury Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Irad Ortiz Jr., Luis Saez, and Jose Lezcano will all be serving suspensions issued by the stewards early in the Belmont Park fall meet, which begins Friday.
Ortiz, the leading jockey at the Saratoga and Belmont spring-summer meets, will miss the first three days of the meet for a careless riding infraction aboard Call Provision in the $100,000 John’s Call Stakes on Aug. 22. Call Provision interfered with fourth-place finisher Patterson Cross and was disqualified from second and placed fourth.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice said that Voodoo Song came out of his last-place finish as the 3-5 favorite in Monday’s Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap in good order and will still be pointed to the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 6.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While acknowledging the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park on Oct. 6 would be the logical next step, trainer Greg Sacco said Wednesday he is not in any hurry to confirm a fall campaign for Hopeful Stakes winner Mind Control.
Mind Control shipped back to his base at Monmouth Park on Tuesday, one day after his three-quarter-length victory over favored Mucho in the Grade 1 Hopeful on closing day at Saratoga. Sacco said Mind Control came out of the race “really good” and that he would likely return to the track toward the end of the week or over the weekend.
Apocalyptical Jess, winner of the $3 million All American Futurity for Quarter Horses on Monday at Ruidoso Downs, could see action next at Lone Star Park. Trainer Blane Wood said Wednesday that Apocalyptical Jess could run next in the Oct. 20 trials for the Grade 1, $1 million Texas Classic Futurity. The finale is Nov. 10.
“If he pulls up like he has me thinking he has, we’ll probably take him to the Texas Classic at Lone Star,” Wood said. “He seems to be perfectly fine.”
McKinzie, once considered the leading contender for the Kentucky Derby this year, is nearing a comeback from injury.
On Wednesday at Del Mar, McKinzie worked seven furlongs in 1:24.80 under jockey Joe Talamo in preparation for the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing on Sept. 22.
“He looked great,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He went strong. We’re still on schedule for Parx.”
Delta Downs will put the spotlight on Louisiana-breds during its meet, which opens Oct. 17 and runs for 84 dates through March 9. The track has announced plans to run 28 stakes worth a cumulative $2.2 million, with 18 of those races restricted to horses bred in Louisiana.
The Feb. 9 Louisiana Premier Night program of 10 stakes for Louisiana-breds – four of them starter stakes – will serve as the meet’s richest card. Purses that day will total $895,000. The card will be topped by the meet’s two richest races, the $150,000 Championship and the $125,000 Distaff.
