LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One time might be a fluke. Two times in a row, however, is something entirely different.
After earning his first Churchill Downs training title at the 11-day September meet, Brad Cox won another one when outlasting 18-time Churchill titlist Steve Asmussen on the final program of the 21-day fall meet. Both trainers sent out one winner apiece Sunday, giving Cox a 13-12 edge after an uncoupled Asmussen entry finished second and sixth in the final race of the meet.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – You might say November went pretty well for Dallas Stewart.
The 58-year-old trainer not only has a prime contender for the $16 million Pegasus World Cup in Forever Unbridled, but he might well have a second in Seeking the Soul, whose breakthrough victory Friday in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs has landed the 4-year-old colt in the top echelon of prospects for the North American older-horse division for 2018.
Seeking the Soul, like Forever Unbridled, is owned by his breeder, Charles Fipke.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockeys Manny Franco and Luis Saez will start the week on suspension, and colleague Paco Lopez was fined $1,500 in three separate incidents that were termed careless riding by the stewards.
Franco, the leading rider at the meet with 17 wins, and Saez will each serve three-day suspensions and will be eligible to return for Saturday’s Cigar Mile card. For waiving their right of appeal, the suspensions were reduced from five days. Meanwhile, Lopez is appealing his fine.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Small Bear, neck winner of Saturday’s $150,000 Gio Ponti Stakes at Aqueduct, will be among the 18 to 20 horses trainer Jeremiah Englehart will have in south Florida at the Palm Meadows training center for the upcoming winter meet.
Englehart said Small Bear would get a little down time in December before he starts cranking up for a potential start or two at Gulfstream Park. A race like the Grade 3, $150,000 Canadian Turf going a mile March 3 could be a return spot for Small Bear.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Jason Servis hopes Actress can be a leading lady in the older filly and mare division in 2018, but he is not exactly sure when and where she will perform next.
Actress dominated Friday’s Grade 3 Comely Stakes by 8 1/4 lengths, earning a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure after running 1 1/8 miles in 1:52.66 over a dull Aqueduct main track. Actress wore blinkers for the first time in the Comely, and after breaking slowly, she put jockey Jose Ortiz in an up-close stalking position and still finished strong.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jorge Navarro wasted little time serving notice he is looking for another big Gulfstream Park championship meet, posting a hat trick on Sunday’s closing-day program at Gulfstream Park West. Navarro’s three winners included a come-from-behind victory by Fire Mission, who registered his fourth consecutive tally in defeating a solid field of starter-allowance rivals going six furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gunnevera, who finished in a dead heat for fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, had his first work back since returning from the West Coast, breezing an easy five furlongs in 1:02.18 on Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park West with jockey Edgard Zayas aboard.
Trainer Antonio Sano said he was very pleased with the move and that Gunnevera will close his 3-year-old campaign in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday here Dec. 16 as a stepping-stone to the $16 million Pegasus World Cup six weeks later.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It was back to work, sort of, for Blonde Bomber on Monday morning at Gulfstream Park.
Breezing for the first time since her third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Blonde Bomber went an easy-as-can-be half-mile in 49.60 seconds shortly after the renovation break while being kept off the rail throughout to prevent her from doing too much. The work amounted to little more than a leg-stretcher to “keep her happy,” according to trainer Stanley Gold.
Trainer John Brocklebank and his wife, Tarilynne, who holds an owner’s license, have been suspended after a Los Angeles Superior Court ordered them to pay a combined $385,558 in damages to owner Barbara Black involving the 2012 sale of the then-unraced filly Provenance.
The suspensions were announced in two rulings issued by Del Mar stewards on Saturday. Later that day, Brocklebank said he may have to declare bankruptcy.
“I can’t pay $385,000, and neither can Tari,” he said.
After five starts on turf, Pacific Wind ran on dirt for the first time Oct. 21, winning an optional claimer at Santa Anita. The 3-year-old filly will not go back to turf anytime soon.
Sunday at Los Alamitos, Pacific Wind will start in the Grade 2 Bayakoa Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The $200,000 Bayakoa will be Pacific Wind’s first start in a stakes against older fillies and mares.
Pacific Wind closed from fifth in the optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles to win by 1 3/4 lengths. That victory gave trainer Peter Eurton the confidence to start Pacific Wind in the Bayakoa.
