Mywomanfromtokyo has been unbeatable in two-turn stakes restricted to Iowa-bred females. She’s run in five such races and won them all. But Mywomanfromtokyo’s streak could be in jeopardy when she faces five foes Friday night in the $65,000 Hawkeyes Stakes.
The Hawkeyes is a 1 1/16-mile race for Iowa-bred fillies and mares, and Mywomanfromtokyo won it last June by more than five lengths. But is Mywomanfromtokyo the same horse now as then? Perhaps not.
Jockey Marlon St. Julien, who suffered a spinal-cord injury when he fell from his mount at the start of a race May 19 at Prairie Meadows, continues to make steady progress in his recovery and on Tuesday was moved from Mercy Hospital in Des Moines to Craig Hospital in Inglewood, Colo., to continue his rehabilitation.
St. Julien rode in an ambulance from Mercy Hospital to the Des Moines airport before being transported in an air ambulance on to Craig, which specializes in the rehabilitation of patients with spinal-cord injuries.
The significance of Kerwin Clark’s win aboard Foxy Miss in the third race June 7 at Evangeline Downs did not hit the 59-year-old rider until he returned to the jockeys’ room. Yes, the victory on Foxy Miss, a mount he picked up that night, was his first since he sustained devastating injuries in a March 15 spill. But, there was an even deeper satisfaction.
Clark was coming back from having his jaw broken in four places, a collapsed lung, and 10 broken ribs. It was his first serious physical setback since 1986. Clark rehabbed himself, training at his home in Louisiana.
Chris Kotulak has been named chief operating officer of Fonner Park, the Grand Island, Neb., track announced. Fonner races from February to May. Kotulak joins Fonner from Remington Park in Oklahoma City, where he has served as television analyst and a marketing and communications assistant since 2011.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A field of nine older horses led by Backyard Heaven and Irish War Cry has been entered for the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap, the highlight of a Downs After Dark card Saturday night at Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 3-year-old filly division in California has undergone noticeable changes since Fool’s Paradise finished a well-beaten fifth in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on April 7.
Midnight Bisou, who won the Santa Anita Oaks, is now based with trainer Steve Asmussen in Kentucky. Runner-up Spectator will have a New York-based summer campaign.
The absence of those fillies and a few others has led owners Paul and Zillah Reddam and trainer Ben Cecil to plan a start in Saturday’s Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita with Fool’s Paradise.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Triple Crown hero Justify is scheduled to be flown from Kentucky to California on Sunday and will be paraded between races at Santa Anita on Saturday, June 23, the track announced on Wednesday.
The June 23 event will include a ceremony honoring Justify’s accomplishments. Unbeaten in six starts, Justify became the 13th Triple Crown winner with a victory in the Belmont Stakes last Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flavien Prat, the leading rider at the spring-summer meeting at Santa Anita, will ride at Belmont Park in late June and early July, according to his agent, Derek Lawson.
Prat is expected to ride Toinette in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks on July 7 and could ride Moonshine Memories in the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes the following day.
Nominations for the Grade 2, $250,000 Princess Rooney on June 30 do not close until Sunday. But trainer John Servis has planned well ahead for the race, shipping his speedy Ms Locust Point to South Florida from her summer base at Parx to complete preparations for the seven-furlong event, a Win and You’re In qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
