Fri, 11/24/2017 - 13:16

Bolt d'Oro targets three preps at Santa Anita

Barbara D. Livingston
Bolt d'Oro trains on Nov. 1 and will likely next start in the San Vicente Stakes.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Bolt d’Oro, one of the nation’s leading 2-year-old males, is tentatively scheduled to have a three-race campaign at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.

Owner and trainer Mick Ruis said Thursday that Bolt d’Oro is likely to have his first start of 2018 in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs in early February. The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles March 10 and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles April 7 are other race goals, Ruis said.

“I’m going in all three races,” Ruis said.

Fri, 11/24/2017 - 13:16

Navarro returns to Florida with strong stable

Barbara D. Livingston
Trainer Jorge Navarro

MIAMI – Anybody wondering whether trainer Jorge Navarro would be returning to south Florida at full strength for the upcoming Championship meeting at Gulfstream Park had only to look at the entries for the final two cards of the Gulfstream Park West session this weekend.

Fri, 11/24/2017 - 12:26

Turfway opens season Wednesday night

Danielle Eilerman/Coady Photography
Turfway Park will conduct racing four nights per week during the track's holiday meet.

Four months of winter racing over Polytrack starts Wednesday night at Turfway Park as the Florence, Ky., oval continues to lag well behind other Kentucky tracks in purse offerings.

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Fri, 11/24/2017 - 12:20

Trainer Pat Byrne ends winless streak

Barbara D. Livingston
Patrick Byrne

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – At his career peak, Pat Byrne came within one vote of being named the Eclipse Award-winning trainer of 1997. Twenty years later, with a stable just a fraction of the size it once was, Byrne won a race for the first time in more than a year when Run Tappy captured a Thursday maiden race on the Churchill turf.

“I’ve just been going at my own pace these last six or seven years, kicking along with the same people,” said Byrne, 61. “I’m fine. I’m pretty well set because of how I did years ago. Nobody needs to feel sorry for me.”

Fri, 11/24/2017 - 12:16

Undefeated C Z Rocket under consideration for Malibu

Keeneland/Coady Photography
C Z Rocket rallied from well back to win a first-level allowance race at Keeneland on Oct. 11 in only his second start.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – C Z Rocket could make his next start in the Grade 1 Malibu on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita after staying unbeaten in three career starts with a two-length victory in a one-mile, second-level allowance Thursday at Churchill.

Trainer Al Stall Jr. said “we’re considering” the seven-furlong Malibu after C Z Rocket, racing closer to the early pace than in his two prior starts, outkicked J Boys Echo down the stretch to earn a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

Fri, 11/24/2017 - 12:16

Top Churchill riders prepare to decamp for winter destinations

Coady Photography
Corey Lanerie, Churchill's top rider this fall, will winter at Fair Grounds.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – They’ll scatter like dust in the wind when the Churchill Downs lights are dimmed following the 12th race Sunday. Horsemen and other racetrack affiliates with Florida, Louisiana, or Arkansas as their next stop will pack their bags in an end-of-November ritual long familiar in these parts.

Wed, 11/22/2017 - 15:56

McLaughlin, Pletcher well-represented in Discovery

Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club
The Todd Pletcher-trained Bonus Points exits a victory in the Maryland Million Classic.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainers Kiaran McLaughlin and Todd Pletcher have combined to win the last three runnings of the Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct, and horses from those two barns comprise half the field in Saturday’s modest renewal of the Grade 3, $250,000 race for 3-year-old males at Aqueduct.

McLaughlin, who won last year’s Discovery with Sticksstatelydude, on Saturday will send out the uncoupled pair of Spieth and True Timber, while Pletcher, who won this race in 2014 with Protonico and 2015 with Tommy Macho, sends out Bonus Points in the six-horse field.

Wed, 11/22/2017 - 15:50

Disco Partner to be freshened for 2018 campaign

Barbara D. Livingston
Disco Partner's 2018 campaign could include a start in the Dubai Turf Sprint.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Disco Partner, beaten just a half-length when third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 4 at Del Mar, was held out of Saturday’s inaugural running of the $125,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship. He will be given a freshening and pointed to a 2018 campaign that could include the Dubai Turf Sprint, according to trainer Christophe Clement.

Wed, 11/22/2017 - 15:46

Athenia trio top Forever Together Stakes

Brianna Vitt
My Impression captured the One Dreamer Stakes at Kentucky Downs in her start prior to a runner-up finish in the Athenia.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – My Impression, Elysea’s World, and Penjade, the second- third-, and fourth-place finishers from the Grade 3 Athenia on Oct. 28 at Belmont, are three of the seven fillies and mares entered in the $150,000 Forever Together Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct.

My Impression, trained by Shug McGaughey, was beaten a neck by Off Limits while finishing a length in front of Elysea’s World in the Athenia, which, like the Forever Together, is run at 1 1/16 miles. Penjade was another nose back in fourth.