Bolt d’Oro was allowed to stretch his legs Tuesday at Keeneland in an untimed half-mile move over Keeneland’s main track as he prepares for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 9 at Belmont Park.
Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of Bolt d’Oro, said Tuesday’s training session would set him up for an official workout Monday. Ruis said that while he plans to work Bolt d’Oro at Keeneland, he could switch the work to Churchill due to the potential for wet weather.
The popular veteran Hoppertunity will return to the scene of one of his biggest victories to run in the Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Stakes for older horses at Belmont Park on June 9, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Hoppertunity won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in the fall of 2016, one of eight victories in a 31-race career that has gleaned more than $4.4 million in earnings for the 7-year-old horse.
What’s better than having one Kentucky Oaks winner on a card? Having two.
Monomoy Girl, the winner of this year’s Oaks, already was ticketed for the Grade 1, $700,000 Acorn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the Belmont Stakes card on June 9, and now Abel Tasman also will be part of that sensational day of racing, as she will head to Belmont Park for the Grade 1, $750,000 Ogden Phipps for older females, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Justify has settled in at Churchill Downs, was scheduled to return to the track for training Thursday, and will have at least one workout there in preparation for the Belmont Stakes on June 9, when he tries to become the sport’s 13th Triple Crown winner and the second for trainer Bob Baffert.
The West Virginia Racing Commission on Tuesday approved a request from Charles Town to add 11 racing days to its 2018 schedule to make up for weather-related cancellations earlier this year.
Wednesday racing will be added in November and December. There also will be racing Dec. 26, 27, and 28.
First post time at Charles Town is 7 p.m. Eastern.
John Panagot, racing manager for owner Robert LaPenta, has taken on a second job – as agent for four-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Javier Castellano.
Castellano retained the services of Panagot over the weekend after parting ways with Mike Lakow, who had been his agent since September 2016.
Through Sunday, Castellano had 79 wins from 367 starts in 2018. He ranks 14th in wins and fifth in purse money won with $7.4 million.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Catholic Boy, who bled while fourth in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 31, could make his return to the races in the Grade 3, $200,000 Pennine Ridge Stakes on turf at Belmont Park on June 2, according to John Panagot, racing manager for part-owner Robert LaPenta.
Catholic Boy made his first three starts on turf, winning two, including the With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga. He finished a troubled fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Good Magic, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, came out of his fourth-place finish in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday in good order and will be freshened for a summer campaign that will likely begin in late July.
Trainer Chad Brown had said after the Derby that he did not feel the 1 1/2-mile distance of the Belmont Stakes was going to suit Good Magic.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher has won two of the last five Belmont Stakes and he is a head and a nose shy of having won four of the last five.
On June 9, when the unbeaten Justify attempts to become Thoroughbred racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner in the 150th Belmont Stakes, Pletcher will once again be a participant in the race. How many runners he has, however, will depend upon decisions that will be forthcoming from his owners.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Grade 1 winner Mubtaahij, who in his last start was third in the Dubai World Cup, drew the rail in a field of five for the Lone Star Park Handicap. The Grade 3, $200,000 race will be run on Sunday.
Mike Smith has the mount on Mubtaahij for trainer Bob Baffert, the same team that won last year’s Lone Star Park Handicap with Danzing Candy and Saturday’s Preakness with Justify.
