HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Longtime South Florida trainer Reed Combest died at the age of 88 earlier this month.
Combest trained for nearly four decades, retiring in 2013 with 487 victories for earnings of nearly $7 million. His most notable win came in 2002 at Gulfstream with Ms. Brookski in the Grade 2 Davona Dale.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Any notion that Mr. Jordan couldn’t win a race at Gulfstream Park finally ended late Saturday afternoon after the gray gelding ran down the Grade 2-placed Kroy to capture the Big Drama Stakes under regular rider Edgard Zayas.
The Big Drama was the first victory in 13 lifetime starts at Gulfstream for Mr. Jordan, a 6-year-old son of Kantharos trained by Eddie Plesa Jr.
BALTIMORE – Theirs has become a mutual-admiration society, and a very exclusive one at that. Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas have returned to Pimlico this week to take another shot at the Preakness, and a win by either would tie a record that has stood for 130 years.
Baffert and Lukas each has won the Preakness six times, just one shy of the record for trainers held by R. Wyndham Walden. The last Preakness win for Walden came in 1888, or well before the Black-Eyed Susan became the official Preakness drink or anyone had ever dreamed up a creature named Kegasus.
BALTIMORE, Md. -- Kentucky Derby runner-up Good Magic got a little warm while galloping about 1 3/8 miles on a humid Tuesday morning, the colt’s first day over the Pimlico main track, as he continues preparation for Saturday’s $1.5 million Preakness Stakes and a rematch with Justify.
“He’s usually like that, but I think it’s his first day, I’m not concerned about it,” said Walter Malasquez, Good Magic’s exercise rider. “He was fine today.”
BALTIMORE – D. Wayne Lukas jogged both of his Preakness horses, Sporting Chance and Bravazo, over a muddy Pimlico track early Tuesday morning. Lukas and his horses pulled into Pimlico at 3:30 p.m. Monday following an 11 1/2-hour van ride from Churchill Downs.
Lukas accompanied Sporting Chance to and from the track on his pony soon after Pimlico opened for training at 5:30 a.m. He then did the same with Bravazo.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As Bob Baffert has shown the last two years, not all talented 3-year-olds make it to the Triple Crown trail.
In Rugbyman, Graham Motion appears to have a 3-year-old that could be an intriguing member of the division this summer. On Sunday at Belmont, Rugbyman overcame a slow start to gallop to a 14-length maiden victory going a mile. Under Jose Ortiz, he covered the distance over a muddy track in 1:36.71 and earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A familiar face is back in New York after a long hiatus, and with any luck – and, he hopes, a fast horse – trainer Phil Gleaves can rekindle past glory.
Gleaves, a former assistant to the legendary Woody Stephens who has trained horses on his own since 1985, is stabled in Saratoga this summer for the first time since 2002. Gleaves had moved to Florida in 2002 because he wanted to keep his son Schuyler based in one school system. Now 19, Schuyler just completed his first year of college.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Silent Sting stamped himself as a contender for the $1 million Queen’s Plate with his win in the Queenston Stakes here on April 22, and will make his next start in the $125,000 Plate Trial Stakes on June 9, trainer Sid Attard said.
Silent Sting will aim to deliver a second consecutive Queen’s Plate victory for owner Stronach Stables after the outfit won the race with Holy Helena last year. Stronach Stables also won the Queen’s Plate in 2015 with Shaman Ghost. This year’s Queen’s Plate is set for June 30.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mike Maker has shipped in to win some big races at Woodbine in recent years, including the 2016 Queen’s Plate with Sir Dudley Digges. This season, Maker will run a regular string at Woodbine and has a 22-stall allocation on the Woodbine backstretch.
Overseeing Maker’s string at Woodbine this season is Nolan Ramsey, the grandson of Kentucky owners and breeders Ken and Sarah Ramsey.
Ramsey said he has six horses at Woodbine with him right now, but expects most of the 22 stalls will be full by the end of the month.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bob Baffert had been back at his Churchill Downs barn for maybe an hour Monday morning before he finally noticed the new plaque on the cement-block wall commemorating the 2018 Kentucky Derby victory by Justify.
“It’s already up there, huh?” he said, adding with a laugh “They need to extend this wall.”
