MIAMI – After having already danced twice this year on racing’s biggest stages, in the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic, Travers runner-up Gunnevera will likely do so again when he launches his 4-year-old campaign in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27.
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DRF Past Performances
This Saturday will begin the best two-week run in New York racing until next spring.
Twelve stakes with total purses of more than $1.82 million will be run Saturday through Sunday, Nov. 26. The following Saturday, Dec. 2, is Cigar Mile Day, when four stakes with combined purses of $1.45 million will be held at Aqueduct.
Trainer Tom Albertrani has shipped Breeders’ Cup Turf fourth-place finisher Sadler’s Joy to the Palm Meadows Training Center in south Florida, where he will be rested before gearing up for next season.
Late-running Sadler’s Joy earned a Win and You’re In fees-paid berth in the BC Turf by finishing fast to win the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga. He broke from post 12 in the 13-horse Turf and trailed for more than a mile before rallying wide on the final turn.
Sadler’s Joy was beaten 2 1/4 lengths under Julien Leparoux, and earned $200,000 from the $4 million purse.
Jockey Trevor McCarthy hasn’t ridden since being injured in a May spill at Monmouth Park but expects to be cleared to start galloping horses early next month. When he returns to the races around the first of the year, McCarthy will be changing venues and leaving the friendly confines of Maryland for New York.
McCarthy will be teaming up at Aqueduct with agent Steve Rushing, who will continue to book mounts for Irad Ortiz Jr.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dona Bruja will be a solid favorite as the 122-pound highweight Saturday in the Cardinal Handicap, but trainer Ignacio Correas said the star Argentine-bred will run only if the rainy forecast for Saturday does not overly affect the Churchill turf course.
The 44th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Cardinal is the highlight of this weekend at Churchill.
“If it stays firm or good, we will run,” said Correas. “But yielding or soft, no way. There will be next year.”
Emerald Downs Racetrack and Casino announced that their 2018 meet will begin Sunday, April 22 and conclude Sunday, Sept. 30.
Following opening day, racing during the first part of the 70-day meet will be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays until May 6. Friday racing begins May 11 and will continue the remainder of the meet.
Post times are slightly different from last year. They are the same for Sundays, 2:00 p.m. Pacific, and Fridays, 6:30 p.m. The first seven Saturdays will have a 2:00 p.m. post time, but the final 16 Saturday cards will start at 5:00 p.m.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – He’s still a maiden, but that wouldn’t preclude Givemeaminit from being one of the favorites for the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, one of six graded stakes that help close the 21-day Churchill fall meet next week.
Givemeaminit was part of Dallas Stewart’s big Breeders’ Cup weekend when he finished fourth in the Juvenile despite never having won so much as a maiden race. Givemeaminit, a Louisiana-bred colt by Star Guitar, was third in the Hopeful at Saratoga and fifth in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg recently underwent surgery for cancer of his inner jaw but continues to train a stable that will move to Oaklawn Park in Arkansas shortly after the Churchill Downs fall meet ends Nov. 26.
Van Berg, 81, was diagnosed earlier this year with squamous cell carcinoma and underwent a second surgery Oct. 31 in Little Rock, Ark., in an attempt to eradicate the disease, said Van Berg’s son and assistant, Tom.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Chickatini, who makes her debut in race 6 on Thursday at Del Mar, is a homebred for Sharon Alesia and Joe Ciaglia. They raced her dam, She’s Cheeky, and then bred the mare to Bernardini.
Chickatini is the second foal by Bernardini and out of She’s Cheeky, but the first who made it to the races, as the first foal died shortly after birth.
“So they bred her back,” said Eurton, who trained She’s Cheeky and now trains Chickatini.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Solid Wager will seek to win the $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes for the third straight year when he makes the 39th start of his career in the seven-furlong race for California-bred sprinters on Sunday.
Solid Wager is one of three horses trainer Peter Miller said he will run in the Cary Grant, along with California Diamond and Prime Issue.
Others under consideration for the race include Edwards Going Left, Green With Eddie, Jimmy Bouncer, Love My Bud, Smokey Image, Tribal Storm, and Well Measured.