LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chris Davis sent out his first winner on the Kentucky circuit when Student Body, a 3-year-old Colonel John filly owned by Gary Broad, prevailed at first asking in the final race Saturday at a $74.60 win mutuel.
Davis, 28, is the son of Chicago-based trainer Liane Davis. He worked as an assistant for Mike Stidham for more than five years in Chicago, New Orleans, and California before going out on his own last fall. He now has a 15-horse stable at Keeneland.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Further sharpening for the June 17 Stephen Foster Handicap, Gun Runner had his most serious breeze yet on the comeback trail when going six furlongs in 1:12 on Monday at Churchill.
Gun Runner spotted a three-length head start to his Steve Asmussen stablemate Real Creel, a 3-year-old with one win, before speeding far ahead under the wire. The splits were 13.20 seconds, 25.80, 37.80, and 48.80, with gallop-out times of 1:23.80 for seven furlongs and 1:36.20 for a mile, according to Churchill clocker John Nichols.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Robby Albarado wonders what all the fuss is about. The 43-year-old jockey has returned from serious injury more than a few times in a riding career dating to his teenage years. To Albarado, climbing back aboard a Thoroughbred is like a normal person getting back on the bicycle.
“After 30,000 mounts, it doesn’t take me long to get back in the swing,” he said.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Bal a Bali and Stellar Wind had secure reputations long before wins in Grade 1 stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.
Bal a Bali, who won Saturday’s $400,690 Shoemaker Mile on turf, won the 2014 Rio Triple Crown in Brazil. Stellar Wind, who won the $368,000 Beholder Mile on dirt, was the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015.
Even with those accomplishments, their respective trainers – Richard Mandella and John Sadler – had common thoughts on Sunday morning. Both think their runners could be in career-best form.
Chris Englehart became the 11th trainer in history to win 4,000 Thoroughbred races when he sent out Prince Supreme to win the fifth race at Finger Lakes on Saturday.
Englehart races at Finger Lakes and at the New York Racing Association tracks, but it was fitting he reached the milestone upstate, where he has won 15 training titles, including 13 straight from 2003 to 2015.
John Davila Jr. rode Prince Supreme in the $12,500 claiming race. Davila and Englehart have won 1,746 races together.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Steve Asmussen wouldn’t label Lookin At Lee as brilliant. He does think he’s strong.
If his workout Sunday at Belmont Park was any indication, Lookin At Lee remains strong following a pretty demanding 3-year-old campaign. Under pristine conditions Sunday, Lookin At Lee worked four furlongs in 48.42 seconds over the Belmont Park main track, with a final quarter of 23.90 in preparation for Saturday’s 149th Belmont Stakes.
Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and his trainer, Chip Woolley, will make a special appearance June 17-18 at SunRay Park, the Farmington, N.M., track, announced Saturday night. Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby in 2009 after being based in New Mexico, and inspired the film 50-1.
SunRay will distribute free autographed photos of Woolley, who lives near the track in Bloomfield, N.M.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Epicharis, the intriguing Japanese challenger in the Belmont Stakes, was released from quarantine shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and went straight to the training track at Belmont Park, where he had a private training session under the watchful eye of trainer Kiyoshi Hagiwara.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Gormley, the Santa Anita Derby winner who most recently was ninth in the Kentucky Derby, worked seven furlongs in 1:26.20 on Saturday at Santa Anita in preparation for a potential start in the Belmont Stakes in one week, but trainer John Shirreffs said he still needed to mull things over for the next couple of days before deciding whether to run.
ELKTON, Md. – Trainer Graham Motion said Saturday that he is inclined to run Irish War Cry in the Belmont Stakes after the horse worked to his liking earlier in the morning at the Fair Hill Training Center here but added that a decision would come after he consults with owner Isabelle de Tomaso.
Irish War Cry, the winner of the Wood Memorial who is coming off a 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, went six furlongs in company with the older horse Ascend. Irish War Cry worked on a fast dirt track and covered the distance in 1:14, according to staff members of Fair Hill.
