ARCADIA, Calif. – Although she emerged as one of the country’s leading older females this season, the 2017 Breeders’ Cup is off the table for Vale Dori.
Trainer Bob Baffert confirmed Sunday that Vale Dori will be freshened for the winter meet at Santa Anita. She will not run this year in the BC Distaff or Filly and Mare Sprint.
“She needs a break. She’s not showing any energy,” Baffert said. “She ran hard all year, and I think she’s sort of tailing on me.”
MIAMI, Fla. – Travers runner-up Gunnevera got a little more serious in his preparations for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4, working five furlongs in 1:00.75 over his home base at Gulfstream Park West on Saturday.
With jockey Edgard Zayas aboard, Gunnevera posted splits of 24 and 35.66 for his opening three-eighths before galloping out six panels in 1:14.63. He was pushed along early on after being chased and then joined inadvertently by an unidentified worker from another barn, who broke off behind Gunnevera at the six-furlong pole.
Trainer Antonio Sano and jockey Edgard Zayas will team up with one of the favorites, Arthemisa, in Monday’s $42,000 main event carded at 1 1/16 miles on the turf under optional claiming and allowance conditions for fillies and mares. It’s the highlight of a special 10-race Columbus Day program.
Arthemisa has registered five victories, more than any other member of the nine-horse field, and is one of only two in the lineup with a win over the Gulfstream Park West turf course, along with Pat M’s Image.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association and Yonkers will offer an all-stakes pick four wager next Saturday.
The wager will combine the $250,000 Harry Harvey Invitational Trot and the $1 million Yonkers International Trot with the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity and the $200,000 Pebbles Stakes. Belmont Park will host the wager, which will have a 50-cent minimum and a 24 percent takeout rate.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Practical Joke, a three-time Grade 1 winner, worked four furlongs in 48.45 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park main track as he continues preparations for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.
Practical Joke worked in company with the 2-year-old maiden winner Engage, and the pair got their last three furlongs in 35.55 seconds and galloped out an additional eighth of a mile in 12.65. Engage is scheduled to run in the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity here next Saturday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Mind Your Biscuits picked up the pace in his preparations for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by working a sharp half-mile in 46.72 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park main track.
The move, timed in splits of 23.12 and 23.60, was done immediately after the track reopened following the 8:30 a.m. renovation break. Joel Rosario, the colt’s regular rider, was aboard for the breeze. Mind Your Biscuits galloped out five furlongs in 59.65.
MIAMI – The popularity of Gulfstream Park’s year-round racing program continues to grow, especially at the mutuel windows.
Total handle for the combined spring and summer meetings, encompassing 111 racing days from April 4 to Oct. 1, was $603 million, an increase of $46.9 million over the corresponding period in 2016 despite five fewer racing dates. The daily average handle of $5.44 million was an increase of nearly $640,000 daily over the previous year.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Not all 2-year-olds are trying to make it to the Breeders’ Cup.
Last weekend, Avery Island and Navajo each won a maiden race at Belmont Park, and they are pointing to the opening-week juvenile stakes at Aqueduct.
On Sept. 30, Avery Island, a son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, won a 1 1/16-mile race by 5 1/4 lengths in his second start, after having finished seventh in his debut sprinting. Joe Bravo rode him in both starts. Avery Island will point to the Grade 2, $200,000 Nashua, a one-turn mile, on Nov. 5.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There will be a nine-race program at Belmont Park on Monday, Columbus Day, topped by the Grade 2, $200,000 Knickerbocker Stakes for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles on the turf.
A field of 11 was entered for the grass, with one entered in the event the race is transferred to the main track. Through Friday, there have been 101 turf races run at this meet with zero taken off the turf. There is rain in the forecast, however.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown made his first foray into the European yearling market this week, attending the Tattersalls yearling auction in Newmarket. He did not leave empty-handed.
Brown purchased 12 yearlings, six each for Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm and Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables.
