Trainer Graham Motion is considering one of two races at Belmont Park for Grade 1 Manhattan winner Ascend.
Ascend could start in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch, a 1 1/2-mile turf race on Sept. 30, but he also is thinking of waiting a week and switching Ascend to dirt in the Grade 1, 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup.
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Trainer Arnaud Delacour bypassed the Grade 2 Canadian at Woodbine last Saturday with Hawksmoor and is pointing her to the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady at Keeneland. The one-mile turf race will be run Oct. 7.
Delacour opted for the First Lady because Hawksmoor ran well over the Keeneland course in the Queen Elizabeth II while making her United States debut last fall. She finished third, beaten a head by Time and Motion and Harmonize in that race after leading in the stretch.
Jockeys Jose Ferrer and Victor Carrasco are recovering from serious injuries sustained in a five-horse spill at Delaware Park on Sept. 14.
Carrasco, 25, the leading rider at the Laurel Park summer meet, broke his lower right leg in several places. He had surgery Friday and is recuperating at home.
Ferrer, 53, was in the midst of an excellent season prior to the spill. He finished second in the Monmouth Park standings and has 104 victories and a 21 percent win average for the year.
Capla Temptress is a 2-year-old filly on the go these days.
An Irish-bred, Capla Temptress was sent from England to Canada for last Sunday’s Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine. She performed brilliantly, closing from seventh in a field of nine to win for the third time in four starts.
On Tuesday, she was vanned to trainer Bill Mott’s stable in New York. At the end of October, if all goes well, Capla Temptress will be sent to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 3.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In 2015, trainer Dale Romans and owner Dennis Albaugh finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with Brody’s Cause. Last year, that same trainer-owner combination finished second in the Juvenile with Not This Time.
“The pattern says we win this year,” Romans said. “You got to think positive.”
Rivers Run Deep would fit well in the Oct. 7 Woodford at Keeneland after crushing a solid field of turf sprinters last Sunday at Churchill, but trainer Chris Hartman said the 6-year-old millionaire will make his next start the same day in the $150,000 Best of Ohio Sprint at Belterra Park, a race the horse has won the past three years.
“He’s a rock star,” Hartman said of Rivers Run Deep, a winner in 19 of 37 career starts, all for James and Ywachetta Driver. “He’s a win machine, absolutely loves his job.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Romantic Vision, Blue Prize, and Tiger Moth – the one-two-three finishers in the Grade 3 Locust Grove last weekend at Churchill – could reconvene in the Oct. 8 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, but otherwise that Grade 1 race is currently lacking in top prospects.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he is thinking about whether to run his latest Hopeful winner, Sporting Chance, in the Oct. 7 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland or just go straight into the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Limousine Liberal has been training right along at Keeneland and is on target for a return in the Grade 2 Phoenix Stakes, in which he was beaten in a tight photo last year.
Several workouts are missing from the past performances of Limousine Liberal, but that’s partly because Keeneland does not employ full-time clockers during its off-season.
“All’s well from here,” said trainer Ben Colebrook, noting that the 5-year-old gelding breezed a half-mile last Saturday in 49.20 seconds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chris Davis is hoping to get the first stakes win of his nascent training career when he sends out Student Body as a top contender Saturday night in the $100,000 Dogwood Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Student Body set the pace before fading over a sloppy track earlier this month in the Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga, but should fare better over a dry surface, said Davis.
“She didn’t quicken like she normally does,” he said.
