Trainer Larry Jones will be sending in some pedigree power for the $400,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
Jones said Believe in Royalty, a son of Tapit and Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can, is scheduled to make his stakes debut in the Dec. 17 race. It will be the first time the Springboard Mile offers eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby.
Remington Park leading rider Ramon Vazquez is arguably having his best year in the saddle. The native of Puerto Rico ranks sixth in wins in North America with 245 through Monday, and he already has surpassed his personal-best numbers for wins and earnings in a year in the United States.
Vazquez won his first race in the United States in 2009. In 2015, he won 232 races and his mounts earned $5.5 million. But those numbers have already been topped with three weeks left in 2017. Through Monday, Vazquez had won 245 races for mount earnings of $6.2 million.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Stellar Wind’s racing career might not be over just yet.
Stellar Wind, a multiple Grade 1 winner of more than $2.2 million, was purchased by Coolmore for $6 million out of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale just four days after the former Eclipse Award winner finished a disappointing eighth and last as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
She joined trainer Chad Brown’s stable at Palm Meadows shortly after, and on Sunday breezed for the first time in her new surroundings, an easy half-mile in 50 seconds.
Wicked Lick returns to the site of her career peak when she starts in the featured seventh race Thursday at Fair Grounds.
The 3-year-old filly capped a good run through the 2016 -17 Fair Grounds season with a second-place finish to Farrell in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks. It was a fine performance, but Wicked Lick has yet to run back to it, and she comes into Thursday’s feature still eligible to this first-level allowance race.
Race plans are uncertain for Chanteline, who won the first division of the Richie Scherer Memorial on Saturday, but there are, in fact, plans to continue racing the mare as a 6-year-old in 2018.
“It’s my understanding she’ll keep running,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “She’s been a nice sound filly, and her last two numbers probably were her best two. She’s pretty versatile.”
Had all gone according to plan, Rapid Rhythm would have been in the late stages of pregnancy last weekend. Instead, she won a division of the $50,000 Richie Scherer Memorial Stakes while retaining her perfect record over the Fair Grounds grass course.
Rapid Rhythm has won six times on the Fair Grounds grass, and she is likely to get a chance at a seventh victory Jan. 6 in the $50,000 Pan Zareta Stakes, trainer Mike Stidham said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When Jose Ortiz guided In the Lee to victory in Sunday’s allowance feature at Aqueduct, it was the 266th – and final – victory of 2017 for the 24-year-old jockey. For Ortiz, his next race is the one for an Eclipse Award, one he seems likely and wants very badly to win.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Santino Di Paola, a 23-year-old trainer, recorded his first career win Nov. 26 when D’s Double Eagle rallied from off the pace under jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson to win by a head in an $8,000 maiden claimer over seven furlongs on Woodbine’s Tapeta.
“I didn’t really think he got it, to be honest,” Di Paola said. “It’s a great feeling to win, but it really topped it off when the whole Woodbine community started blowing up my phone.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pink Lloyd recorded his eighth consecutive stakes win with a 2 1/4-length victory over Ikerrin Road in the Grade 2, $197,050 Kennedy Road Stakes on Nov. 25, capping a perfect 2017 campaign.
Trainer Robert Tiller said Pink Lloyd will not race again this season and will spend the winter at Buttigieg Training Centre in Egbert, Ontario.
Tiller said the plan is to bring Pink Lloyd back next year as a 6-year-old. He added that the connections have not finalized potential target races or if Pink Lloyd would make a start away from Woodbine next season.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With Sunday as the meet’s closing day, Jonathan Zammit, Woodbine’s vice president of Thoroughbred racing, revealed some details for the 2018 season in a memo to horsemen.
Woodbine’s 2018 season will start a week later next year, the Dec. 2 memo said, with opening day scheduled for April 21 and closing day set for Dec. 16. The backstretch will open Feb. 26, with ship-in day scheduled for Feb. 27. The first day of training will be Feb. 28.
