DEL MAR, Calif. – Talismanic, the upset winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Saturday, is likely to stay in training in 2018.
His presence in the older horse division in Europe next year could give owner Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing a powerful duo of 5-year-olds for that continent’s top races – and perhaps the 2018 BC Turf at Churchill Downs.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Caledonia Road emerged in good shape from her upset victory Saturday in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and likely will have about 45 days of light training before trainer Ralph Nicks starts plotting out a course for the Kentucky Oaks in May.
Nicks said Caledonia Road left Del Mar well before dawn Sunday for a return flight to her home base in south Florida. He said the filly’s swift and steady improvement bodes well for her prospects at 3.
DEL MAR, Calif. - It took jockey Florent Geroux just a little over two minutes to take his career to the next level late Saturday afternoon at Del Mar, when he guided Gun Runner to a convincing victory in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Ulysses, the 7-2 favorite for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, was withdrawn on Friday evening because of soundness issues.
In a one-sentence statement, the Breeders’ Cup announced his withdrawal without providing specifics. The statement said Ulysses was scratched “per recommendation from the track veterinarians.”
Ulysses is scheduled to go to stud at Cheveley Park in England in 2018 and is not expected to race again.
Laurel Park will run 22 stakes worth a total of $2.25 million during its winter meet, which begins Jan. 1 and runs through May 6.
The Winter Carnival, which will be held Feb. 17, will be the highlight of the season and will include the Grade 2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie and Grade 3, $250,000 General George.
In last year's Fritchie, a seven-furlong race for fillies and mares, High Ridge Road defeated By the Moon by a neck. Imperial Hint, who is scheduled to run in the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Saturday, won the seven-furlong General George.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When Bentley Combs wants to reflect on his first win as a trainer, he can look at the win photo of Ostentation from the third race at Churchill Downs on Thursday. He just won’t see himself in it.
No matter, he said. The race will always be etched in his memory. He watched it on his phone outside the stall of Breeders’ Cup Distaff entrant Forever Unbridled at Del Mar, where Combs is this week as an assistant to Dallas Stewart.
“People were looking at a me funny ‘cause I was screaming,” he said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Jesus Castanon was back breezing horses Friday, one day after tumbling to the Churchill Downs turf when his mount in the eighth race, Good Offense, ducked out suddenly near the wire while seemingly on his way to victory and unseated him. He said he was sore but “pretty lucky” to have fallen outside of trailing horses.
Good Offense, a 2-year-old First Defense gelding owned by Amerman Racing, also avoided injury, trainer Paul McGee said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Two days into the Del Mar autumn meeting, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s stable had amassed three wins, including Thursday’s $102,580 Lure Stakes with He Will.
The results were quite a turnaround from the track’s summer meeting, when Hollendorfer won five races from 80 starters – and had 17 seconds.
“We didn’t do anything good at the other Del Mar meet,” Hollendorfer said on Thursday. “We had 17 seconds. We were putting them in the right spots.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Masochistic, a multiple stakes-winning sprinter, has resumed training after a summertime rest and is now based with a new trainer, Bob Baffert.
Baffert said last week that Masochistic was at Los Alamitos and would be transferred to Santa Anita in coming weeks.
DEL MAR, Calif. – After Sunday’s program, racing resumes at Del Mar on Friday and runs through the weekend. There are two stakes next weekend, including the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs on Saturday.
The $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes drew 14 nominations, and could produce a few runners for the Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 9.
