A year ago, Fergal Lynch finished in a three-way tie for leading rider during the 12-day Pimlico mini-meet. On Sunday, he won the title outright.
Lynch, 39, rode nine winners at the meet, two more than both Horacio Karamanos - who also tied for last year's meet lead - and Rosario Montanez. Lynch scored riding triples on both May 13 and 24.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Audible, the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner and third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, has been taken out of training and sent to a clinic in Kentucky for a complete physical, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
Last Friday, Pletcher said Audible was not training to his satisfaction and he was removed from consideration for the Belmont Stakes. Audible shares common ownership with Justify, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner who will be aiming for a Triple Crown in the June 9 Belmont.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Good Samaritan, a multiple graded stakes winner on dirt going 1 1/8 miles, will turn back to a one-turn mile race when he runs in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 9.
Though it appeared Good Samaritan was pointing to the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 16, trainer Bill Mott said: “We’ve been thinking about the Met Mile all year. He ran well at a mile as a 2-year-old, albeit on turf, but we’ve always wondered ‘What if?’ This is our chance to try and find out.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – The undefeated Analyze It and the dual-surface stakes winner Catholic Boy both put in workouts at Belmont Park Monday morning and were then part of an eight-horse field drawn that afternoon for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Pennine Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park.
Turf works, usually conducted on Sunday, were moved to Monday due to rain on Sunday.
Catholic Boy, who has not run since having been found to have bled in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 31, found a solid workmate in the 5-year-old New York-bred mare Kundray.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Mick Ruis has moved on from Bolt d’Oro’s 12th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. Apparently, the horse has as well.
On Monday, at Keeneland, Bolt d’Oro blitzed five furlongs in 57 seconds in preparation for the Grade 1, $1.2 Metropolitan Handicap here on June 9. According to owner-trainer Ruis, Bolt d’Oro started four lengths behind workmate Orbit Rain and finished three in front.
Ruis said, “we didn’t even try to” go that fast.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It was quite the busy Monday morning for trainer Chad Brown, who worked a bevy of runners for the Belmont Stakes week programs.
In addition to Beach Patrol, Brown is planning to start the undefeated Robert Bruce in the Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan. On Monday, Robert Bruce, winner of the Fort Marcy stakes in his U.S. debut, worked five furlongs on turf in 1:01.95 in company with Almanaar, who has not run since winning the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf in February 2017.
Social Misfit delivered a big upset Saturday night when he defeated Mobile Bay in the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Classic at Evangeline Downs. But aside from taking down a two-time Louisiana-bred horse of the year who was 1-2 to win his sixth straight stakes, Social Misfit achieved an additional milestone.
“It’s amazing that he was finally able to get his first stakes win – it doesn’t happen very often at the ripe old age of 9,” said Karl Broberg, who co-owns and trains Social Misfit.
Double Star is back at his Louisiana Downs base after winning his second straight Evangeline Downs stakes on Saturday, and trainer Bob Schultz said the horse could make his next start at home in the Prelude Stakes.
The $60,000 Prelude, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds, will be run Aug. 4 at Louisiana Downs.
“We could take a shot in there if they don’t have anything for straight 3-year-old Louisiana-breds,” Schultz said Monday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Itsinthepost has earned a brief rest after winning his fourth Grade 2 stakes of 2018 in the Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf last Saturday.
Trainer Jeff Mullins said the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on Aug. 18 is a late summer goal for Itsinthepost, who is owned by Jed Cohen’s Red Barons Barn.
“I think I’ll give him a little bit of a break,” Mullins said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unique Bella will have four or five rivals when she starts as a prohibitive favorite in Saturday’s Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita.
As of Monday, the list of candidates include La Force, Munny Spunt, Paradise Woods, Shenandoah Queen, and Vale Dori. Munny Spunt must be supplemented for $8,000 when entries are taken on Wednesday, and trainer Doug O’Neill said that was the plan as of Monday.
