Trainer Keith Nations has spent the winter at Tampa Bay Downs and, in the coming weeks, will be transitioning his stable to the Northeast.
Nations will be making a change this year and have his main string at Monmouth Park rather than Delaware Park, where he has been based the last two summers.
"Monmouth is the type of place where if my wife and I have an off day, we'll jump in the car and head over," Nations said. "It's so beautiful. It just makes you feel good to be there.
ARCADIA, Calif. – In just 48 days, Justify has gone from an unstarted maiden to the winner of the Santa Anita Derby, and now he heads to the May 5 Kentucky Derby as the current favorite for the race. There’s potentially room for improvement, too, according to trainer Bob Baffert, who on Sunday morning here at Santa Anita said he had yet to “bear down” on Justify, saying everything to this point has been “done with raw talent.”
“I think he’s caught up now,” Baffert said. “He’s doing that all on his own.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unique Bella is ready to take her act on the road.
Nearly a year after sore shins prevented her from running in the Kentucky Oaks, Unique Bella finally will make her first start outside California when she heads to Oaklawn Park to run in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on Friday.
Unique Bella will be trying to annex her second Grade 1 race. She won the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 to secure the title as champion female sprinter of 2017.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite their bumper-car battle in the stretch, Vino Rosso and Enticed emerged from Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial in good order and will proceed to Churchill Downs for the May 5 Kentucky Derby. However, both are expected to make a return trip to South Florida to prepare for the Run for the Roses.
Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Wood winner Vino Rosso, and Kiaran McLaughlin, the conditioner of runner-up Enticed, both indicated that neither horse was worse for the wear from a bumping incident that somewhat clouded the race.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby picked up a new player over the weekend when Tampa Bay Derby winner Quip scratched from the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and rolled into the Oaklawn backstretch at 4:30 a.m. Saturday.
Quip tracked Sunday at Oaklawn, where he will start as one of the top choices in the Arkansas Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race that closes out the meet on Saturday. The Arkansas Derby is a points race for the Kentucky Derby.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Good Magic emerged from his Saturday victory in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in excellent shape and will remain stabled here for the foreseeable future before moving down the road to Churchill Downs as one of the top contenders for the May 5 Kentucky Derby.
Brown reiterated Sunday morning what he told the media the previous evening at a post-race briefing – that Good Magic will remain here long enough to have at least one breeze before moving over to Louisville for at least one serious work over the Churchill main track.
The New York riding colony will welcome two old faces back to the fold this spring.
Over the next two weeks, Rajiv Maragh, who spent the winter in Southern California, and David Cohen, who returned from a three-year hiatus to ride at Oaklawn, will begin riding at Aqueduct.
Maragh will return to New York next week after riding at Santa Anita through the weekend. Maragh had 15 wins, 19 seconds, and 18 thirds from 157 mounts at Santa Anita.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tony Dutrow’s winter hiatus is over.
From December through March, Dutrow ran only three horses, winning one race and finishing in the money with the other two. Dutrow, who was based at the Payson Park training center in Indiantown, Fla. all winter, said this was by design.
“I thought we’d have our horses fresh and well rested for April through October,” said Dutrow, who maintains an 18-horse stable that ultimately will be based at Belmont Park.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jinks Fires first showed up at Oaklawn in 1959. David Vance came along in 1962. Don Von Hemel set up shop in 1975, and D. Wayne Lukas sent a division to town for the first time in 1984.
The men are the stalwarts of the local training colony, respected as much for their accomplishments and horsemanship as their longevity in a demanding profession. They carry on when many from their generation have retired. For them, training is not just a career, it’s a passion.
