In this age of reduced foal crops and shrinking field size, the Maryland Jockey Club racing office outdid itself for the Friday card at Pimlico, which is topped by the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan and Grade 3 Pimlico Special and includes five other stakes.
The 14-race program starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern and is loaded from top to bottom. A total of 151 horses, an average of more than 10 per race, could go postward.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The two sprint stakes for 3-year-olds run at Santa Anita on Saturday may turn out to be preps for major stakes at Belmont Park on June 9 more than graded stakes in Southern California later that month.
Kanthaka won the Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes at seven furlongs for his second stakes win around one turn this year. On Sunday, Terry Finley, the chief executive of the West Point Thoroughbreds partnership that owns the colt, said Kanthaka is being considered for the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs at Belmont Park on June 9.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The rematch is set.
Good Magic, second to Justify in the Kentucky Derby on May 5, will take on that rival again in Saturday’s $1.5 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Trainer Chad Brown, who had been hinting at running Good Magic in the Preakness since Thursday, confirmed him as a starter on Sunday after the colt galloped 1 3/8 miles over Belmont Park’s main track.
Javier Castellano will ride Diamond King in the Preakness Stakes, trainer John Servis confirmed Saturday morning.
Castellano takes over the mount from Frankie Pennington, who has won the last four riding championships at Parx Racing and has won five titles overall at the Bensalem, Pa., track where Diamond King is based.
Stephen Juliano, a popular racetrack character in the Northeast, died Wednesday at a hospital on Long Island. He was 86.
Juliano was a trainer and a jockey agent in New Jersey and New York. As a trainer, Juliano won 44 races from 460 starters in a career that spanned from 1976-84. His best horse was Hurricane Carol, with whom he won the Sensational Stakes at Monmouth Park.
As a jockey agent, Juliano worked for, among others, Michael McCarthy, Nick Santagata, and Georgina Frost.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Divine Miss Grey zipped a half-mile in 47.07 seconds Friday morning over the Belmont training track.
Trainer Danny Gargan said he is considering stretching the multiple stakes-winning miler out in distance in a race such as the Grade 2, $200,000 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs on June 16. The Fleur de Lis is run at 1 1/8 miles.
“She has a real high cruising speed,” Gargan said. “I think she can go long. I think her mile races are her best races. She’s bred to go long and I think that track will suit her.”
Dylan Davis gets married
ELMONT, N.Y. – Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming disappointed in the Alysheba Stakes and his future is uncertain. Preakness winner Cloud Computing came out of his comeback race with a chip in an ankle that requires surgery.
So it may be up to Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit to carry the mantle for the Triple Crown class of 2017.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It has been six weeks since Mind Your Biscuits did any serious running. On Friday morning he was eager to show his connections that he’s ready to go back into the fray.
Mind Your Biscuits zipped a half-mile in 46.93 seconds over the Belmont Park main track Friday morning as he prepares for a start in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap here June 9, Belmont Stakes Day.
ARCADIA, Calif. – My Boy Jack, who was fifth in the Kentucky Derby on May 5, may have his next start at Belmont Park, but it could come on dirt or on turf.
Trainer Keith Desormeaux said on Friday that My Boy Jack is being considered for two Grade 1 races – the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on dirt on June 9, or the $1.2 million Belmont Derby at 1 1/4 miles on turf on July 7.
Desormeaux was leaning slightly toward the Belmont Derby as of Friday.
