Retama Park near San Antonio had a three-way tie atop its rider standings heading into Friday.
Ted Gondron, who won last year’s title in a tie, has won 22 races this meet, as has Ernesto Valdez-Jiminez and Ivan Arellano.
Perennial leading trainer Danny Pish leads the standings with 25 wins. Ronnie Cravens III is second with 17.
The leading owner is End Zone Athletics, with 12 wins compared to six from runner-up Adriel Gonzalez.
Jockey Alexis Batista was thrown from a mount who broke down during a Nov. 2 race at Delta Downs and was initially diagnosed with a hairline fracture of his C-7 vertebrae, but he is scheduled to have more tests, his agent, Antonio Floyd, said Tuesday.
Batista had a second round of X-rays with a specialist earlier this week which proved inconclusive, perhaps due to swelling, and he is being scheduled for an MRI, Floyd said.
“He’s doing a little better,” Floyd said. “They’ve got him in the neck brace.”
Battle of Midway gave Remington Park a notable claim Nov. 3 when he parlayed a runner-up finish in the Oklahoma Derby into a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar. He became the first horse to win a Breeders’ Cup race one start after running at Remington.
The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby and its supporting stakes were repositioned from October to late September in 2012 to serve as potential preps for the BC. This year the Oklahoma Derby card was Sept. 24, and five weeks later came Battle of Midway in the Dirt Mile.
November. Ben’s Cat raced in six of them.
Nov. 24, 2010 was the first. The start came in a Laurel Park allowance race. Ben’s Cat, still never beaten, won his eighth race.
Nov. 23, 2011, Ben’s Cat was third, beaten a neck, in the $200,000 Six Bits Handicap at Penn National.
November 2012, November 2013, and November 2014 – those were the years Ben went back-to-back-to-back in the $200,000 Fabulous Strike Handicap at Penn, his three biggest dirt wins.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kelly Breen typically is nowhere near Kentucky at this time of year, but the trainer sent seven horses to run at the Churchill fall meet.
“We came for the Chilukki,” said Breen, referring to the runner-up finish by Money’soncharlotte in the Grade 2 race here last Saturday. “I thought I’d bring a few extra.”
Breen, a longtime leading trainer in New Jersey, said his final starter at Churchill likely will be Nov. 19 before he regroups his stable in Florida.
Eight for Commonwealth Turf
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dale Romans said he is undeterred despite the disappointing performances of his two starters in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and is looking ahead to happier days with both.
Hollywood Star finished sixth for Romans at 36-1, and Breeders’ Futurity winner Free Drop Billy ran ninth as the 7-1 second choice. Both are owned by the Albaugh Family Stables.
“They’re better than they showed,” Romans said. “They’re both getting 30 days off and then they’ll join me down in Florida sometime in December. We’ll get them ready for the Derby trail down there.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – All seven Breeders’ Cup starters trained by Mark Casse were flown Wednesday from Southern California to south Florida and will head in various directions in the coming weeks and months, with all seven intended for 2018 campaigns.
It seems there were two jockeys of the week during the Breeders’ Cup – and they both ride in New York.
John Velazquez was voted top jock for his Breeders’ Cup exploits by the Jockey’s Guild, while Javier Castellano won the Shoemaker Award, which recognizes the top rider at the Breeders’ Cup and is determined by a point system.
The thing is, Velazquez was the only jockey to win more than one Breeders’ Cup race last weekend. Confusing? You bet.
Mind Your Biscuits has earned more than $2.3 million with only one of his 18 starts coming at a distance longer than seven furlongs. We'll find out if he can go farther in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 2 at Aqueduct.
Last Saturday at Del Mar, Mind Your Biscuits closed strongly but ran out of real estate to finish third, beaten three lengths, in the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He flew home from California on Tuesday to rejoin trainer Chad Summers at Belmont Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Eastern-based trainers Brian Lynch and George Weaver each has brought a small stable of horses to Del Mar.
Weaver had eight horses at Del Mar as of last weekend and said more would be coming. Owners Jim and Susan Hill asked Weaver to have a presence at the meeting, which continues through Nov. 26.
“Hopefully, we can get lucky and win some races,” Weaver said.
Weaver had four runners in the first week of the meeting. His best result was a second by Thundering Sky in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes last Saturday.
