LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Gun Runner is scheduled to breeze twice at Churchill Downs before leaving Sept. 25 for Santa Anita to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, said trainer Steve Asmussen, adding the star colt “couldn’t be doing any better.”
:: Get firsthand workout observations for fall racing at Belmont Park
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The final Downs After Dark card of the year will be held under the Churchill lights next Saturday, with the $100,000 Dogwood for 3-year-old fillies and a rare Arabian race serving as the features of an 11-race card that starts at 6 p.m. Eastern.
The seven-furlong Dogwood drew a deep roster of 33 nominations, including Champagne Room, Classy Tune, Farrell, Tequilita, and Vertical Oak. Entries will be drawn Wednesday. The Dogwood typically is a lead-in to the Grade 2 Raven Run, on Oct. 21 at Keeneland.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Finley’sluckycharm equaled a record by winning three stakes at the Churchill spring meet, after which trainer Bret Calhoun sought bigger game by pointing the star 4-year-old filly to the Grade 1 Ballerina on the Aug. 26 Travers undercard at Saratoga.
But Finley’sluckycharm failed to make the Ballerina – she missed training with a lower-leg strain that since has healed. Calhoun now is aiming at the Oct. 7 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland as a prep for the BC Filly and Mare Sprint.
Kentucky Downs easily surpassed its record for all-sources handle when $30,246,888 was wagered at its five-day 2017 meet, which ended Thursday.
Officials at the turf-only track in south-central Kentucky reported an increase of 34 percent over the previous record, set during the five-day 2016 meet. The gains were more impressive in that only one Saturday card was held this year versus two last year.
“It just shows that horseplayers and casual fans alike love the Kentucky Downs product,” general manager Ted Nicholson said in a press release.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Embattled trainer Jorge Navarro, who was not allowed to run horses in Maryland and Indiana this week, will be permitted to run horses in New York, according to state and New York Racing Association officials.
Navarro, who does not keep a regular stable in New York, is expected to enter Sharp Azteca in the Grade 2, $300,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park on Sept. 23. He is also pointing El Deal, winner of the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes at Saratoga, to the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont on Sept. 30.
Papa Shot’s third-place finish in the Keeneland Korea Cup in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday has trainer Linda Rice thinking she may like to try Korea racing again in 2018.
Papa Shot, a 5-year-old New York-bred gelding owned by Barry Schwartz, was beaten 21 lengths by winner London Town in the Korea Cup, but he did earn $114,842. Rice said that Bill Nader, former head of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, approached both her and Schwartz about sending a few horses to Korea for their major night of racing.
The world’s richest race, the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, and the $1 million Florida Derby highlight a record $28.6 million stakes schedule released Thursday for the 2017-2018 Gulfstream Park championship meet, which opens on Dec. 2.
The purse for the 2018 Pegasus World Cup has been increased $4 million since the inaugural running, won earlier this year by Arrogate over a field that included two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome. The 2018 Pegasus World Cup will be decided on Jan. 27.
It wasn't easy to fill, but the Grade 3 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park on Saturday closed with seven entrants on Wednesday despite track management declining to accept two entries from trainer Jorge Navarro. The six-furlong De Francis is one of seven stakes on the Laurel card.
Navarro and one of his owners, Randal Gindi, were each fined $5,000 by the Monmouth Park stewards on Sunday for "conduct detrimental to racing" after a video posted online showed them making inappropriate comments following a Gulfstream Park race won by Navarro's brother, Marcial.
Apprentice jockey Katie Clawson, who has ridden only one race since Aug. 23, hopes she can return to work next week at Indiana Grand.
Clawson was hurt in a morning training spill and suffered a concussion, the effects of which still are being resolved. She wasn’t cleared by a doctor during a visit last week but said she has another appointment Monday and expects a more favorable report then.
Fly Baby Fly won’t race again this year and will return to the races next year at 3, trainer Jimmy Padgett said Wednesday. She was found to have a small bone chip following her win in the $3 million All American Futurity last month at Ruidoso Downs, and it has been removed at a clinic in Texas.
Padgett said Fly Baby Fly will be pointed for the Ruidoso stakes series for 3-year-olds. She had been eligible for trials for the Texas Classic Futurity, and that was an option until the chip was found, but so was resting her until next summer, said Padgett.
