Mon, 11/06/2017 - 11:56

Southern California jockey Garcia moving to Aqueduct

Shigeki Kikkawa
American Pharoah, like all Thoroughbreds, is fragile and any race could be his last.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Martin Garcia, the rider of Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up Collected, will move his tack to New York and plans to begin riding at Aqueduct starting Nov. 15, he said Sunday.

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 19:52

All in all, not a bad weekend for Chad Brown

Debra A. Roma
Chad Brown's Good Magic won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile by 4 1/4 lengths.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Trainer Chad Brown returned to New York on Sunday morning with two more Breeders’ Cup trophies, the promise of a legitimate Kentucky Derby candidate for 2018 and the ability to lay claim to multiple Eclipse Awards.

Brown won Friday’s $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf with Rushing Fall - his fourth victory in 10 runnings of that race - and Saturday’s $2 million Juvenile with Good Magic, the first maiden to win in the 34-year history of the race. The two wins give Brown 10 in the Breeders’ Cup series, placing him fourth in that category.

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 17:58

Good Magic is Eclipse Award-worthy, Brown says

Susie Raisher
Trainer Chad Brown said he believes Good Magic's win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile should be good enough for an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Good Magic, who at Del Mar on Saturday became the first maiden to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, shipped to south Florida on Sunday for a brief vacation before gearing up for a run toward the Kentucky Derby next May.

Good Magic, who had finished second in a maiden race at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park, galloped to a 4 1/4-length victory over the pace-prompting Solomini in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Saturday at Del Mar. The previously undefeated Bolt d’Oro, the 3-5 favorite, was another length back in third.

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 15:09

Del Mar likely to seek to host Breeders' Cup again soon

DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar successfully hosted the Breeders’ Cup races for the first time on Friday and Saturday, and it may not be long before the San Diego-area racetrack seeks the event again.

“I think we’ll be back,” track president Joe Harper said on Sunday. “It’s up to the Breeders’ Cup.

“The Breeders’ Cup people – the ones I talked to – were happy. I think we’ll be looked at in a different light.

“Everything went fairly smoothly. I didn’t have too many concerns.”

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 14:28

Gun Runner points to Pegasus World Cup, but then what?

Barbara D. Livingston
Gun Runner earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 117 for his win in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Gun Runner, who emerged as the slam-dunk favorite to be named Horse of the Year with his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Del Mar, will remain in training for the immediate future, though his plans for all of 2018 have yet to be ironed out.

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 14:08

Trainer Miller savors Breeders' Cup double

Debra A. Roma
Roy H paid $11.80 in winning the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Saturday.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Peter Miller said he received a phone call Saturday night from owner Gary Hartunian of Rockingham Ranch, who asked, “Did that really happen today?” Hartunian was referring to the pair’s Breeders’ Cup wins with Stormy Liberal in the Turf Sprint and Roy H in the Sprint.

Miller, whose feat arguably earned him the No. 2 star on Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup program at Del Mar behind only Classic winner Gun Runner, said his reply was simply, “Everyone is telling me it did.”

By Sunday morning, the enormity of the accomplishment still had not totally sunk in.

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 13:34

World Approval heads home for some rest

Barbara D. Livingston
World Approval wins the Breeders' Cup Mile under John Velazquez on Saturday.

DEL MAR, Calif. – For more reasons than one, the people who work around World Approval would like to see him win the Breeders’ Cup Mile on a regular basis.

Sure, there’s the glory and the riches, but Saturday’s BC Mile win also served to take the edge off World Approval. The 5-year-old nearly white gelding still stood as usual with his head hanging over his stall webbing and out into the shed row of the Del Mar barn where trainer Mark Casse’s seven Breeders’ Cup runners were stabled this week, but that head was not lunging menacingly toward passersby.

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 13:26

Castellano prevails in race for Shoemaker Award

Michael Amoruso
Javier Castellano will ride West Coast in the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Classic.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Javier Castellano, who won Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and was second or third in four other Breeders’ Cup races, won the Shoemaker Award as the outstanding jockey for the two days of Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar on Friday and Saturday.

The contest was based on a 10-5-3-1 point system for top-four finishes. Castellano, who has won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding jockey the last four years, rode nine of the 13 Breeders’ Cup races and scored 25 points.

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 13:22

Bar of Gold ends career on a high note

Debra A. Roma
Bar of Gold's win Saturday was the second-biggest upset in Breeders' Cup history.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Bar of Gold left an incredible legacy on her way out. The 5-year-old New York-bred mare ran her final race when becoming the second-longest-priced winner in Breeders’ Cup history in nailing Ami’s Mesa on the wire Saturday in the Filly and Mare Sprint.

Trainer John Kimmel said Sunday that Bar of Gold will be flown Wednesday to New York, where she will be let down before being retired and bred early next year.

“She came out of this race in great shape,” said Kimmel. “She ate all her dinner and an extra scoop, and her legs were ice cold.”

Sun, 11/05/2017 - 13:13

Rushing Fall to get winter break

Debra A. Roma
Rushing Fall paid $8.00 in winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Friday.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The undefeated Rushing Fall has earned a wintertime vacation after her win in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar.

“She’s going down to Stonestreet and [will] take the winter off,” owner Bob Edwards said after the race. “She deserves it.”

Edwards keeps horses at Stonestreet Farm in Ocala, Fla. On Saturday, Edwards and Stonestreet won the BC Juvenile with the maiden Good Magic.