Sat, 07/01/2017 - 08:11

Closing-day Single 6 tickets return $3,435

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Winning 20-cent tickets for the mandatory dispersal of the Single 6 wager at Churchill Downs returned $3,435 apiece as the 38-day spring meet closed Friday night with an 11-race program.

Conducted on races 5 through 10, the Single 6 drew an all-sources handle of $762,462. The Single 6 jackpot had swelled to $146,754 after going more than a month without being swept by a solo winner, as is required to empty the jackpot.

The winning numbers were 9-6-9-1-6-4. Their respective odds were 5-2, 1-2, 9-1, 6-5, 5-1, and 1-1.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 20:56

Gormley almost ready to get serious again

Barbara D. Livingston
Santa Anita Derby winner Gormley could give jockey Victor Espinoza his fourth Kentucky Derby win.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gormley is nearing a return to full training after being given three weeks of light exercise following a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 10.

Trainer John Shirreffs said on Friday that Gormley could have a workout in early July.

“I gave him a break,” Shirreffs said. “He’s starting to rebound. It looks like he’s put on a little weight.”

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 20:49

Baffert to become trainer of Masochistic

Benoit & Associates
Masochistic has won both of his starts this year, most recently in the Grade 2 Pat O'Brien in August.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Masochistic, a multiple-stakes-winning sprinter, will have a new trainer when he returns to the racetrack after a summertime rest.

Co-owner Will Shamlian said on Friday that Masochistic will be transferred from Ron Ellis to Bob Baffert. Masochistic is at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky and is expected to return to training at Santa Anita after the Del Mar summer meeting.

Shamlian said that he had a difference of opinion with Ellis on the direction of Masochistic’s career.

“We weren’t seeing eye to eye,” Shamlian said.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 15:10

Time and Motion brings Grade 1 credentials to Modesty

Keeneland/Coady Photography
Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup winner Time and Motion will make her next start in Sunday's Matriarch Stakes.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Grade 1-winning 4-year-old filly Time and Motion ships Tuesday from New York to start July 8 in the Grade 3, $100,000 Modesty Handicap at Arlington, trainer Jimmy Toner confirmed Friday.

Time and Motion adds heft to a race that is coming up stronger than its grade and purse. Also expected to run is the exciting South American import Dona Bruja, a Grade 1 winner in her native Argentina who in her U.S. debut handed the very sharp filly Believe in Bertie a 1 1/2-length defeat in the Mint Julep Stakes Churchill Downs.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 15:06

The Pizza Man headed to Stars and Stripes for a fifth time

Four-Footed Fotos
The Pizza Man (No. 6) finishes fourth by just one length in last year's Stars and Stripes.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – One day there will be a Stars and Stripes Handicap lacking The Pizza Man, but that day will not be July 8.

The popular Illinois-bred gelding is set to start in the Stars and Stripes for the fifth year in a row, owner Rich Papiese said Friday. Papiese bred and owns The Pizza Man with his wife, Karen, as Midwest Thoroughbreds.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 15:06

Kasaqui, Dona Bruja invade for stakes

Four-Footed Fotos
Kasaqui is likely to attempt to defend his 2016 Arlington Handicap victory.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Pending Saturday workouts at Keeneland, the high-powered Ignacio Correas duo of Kasaqui and Dona Bruja remain on track for Arlington stakes starts on July 8.

Kasaqui convincingly won the Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes at Churchill Downs in his most recent start and will try to win the Arlington Handicap for the second year in a row. The 7-year-old Argentine import went on to finish second last summer in the Arlington Million.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 14:40

Songbird cruises in fast workout

Barbara D. Livingston
Songbird breezes five furlongs in 59.60 seconds Thursday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The two-time champion Songbird continues to work fast with minimal effort.

On Thursday at Santa Anita, Songbird breezed five furlongs in 59.60 seconds, the fastest of 29 works at the distance. For the second consecutive week, Songbird’s work was given the designation of “breezing” and not the more-strenuous “handily.”

Regular jockey Mike Smith was aboard for the workout. Smith rode Songbird to a win in her first start of the year, the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 14:36

Finest City legs up for Great Lady M.

Benoit & Associates
Finest City has two seconds and a third in her three starts since winning the Grade 2 Santa Monica.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Finest City, the champion female sprinter of 2016, worked a half-mile in 49.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday for a scheduled start in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos next Saturday.

Finest City won the Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Al in April 2016 and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita last November, a victory that clinched her championship.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 14:30

Former trainer Autrey finds success behind the scenes

The M & M Racing operation of Mike Sisk is making an impact at Belmont Park, and working behind the scenes on behalf of the new owner is a familiar name. Cody Autrey, the longtime trainer who now resides year-round in Arkansas, is the racing manager for the Texas-based Sisk.

Autrey last started a horse as a trainer in May 2016 at Prairie Meadows. He decided to search out other opportunities in racing and has carved out a niche working with Sisk and trainer Robertino Diodoro, who this year branched out with a division in New York.

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 14:16

Prat to hit the road during most of Los Alamitos meet

Barbara D. Livingston
Flavien Prat rides favored Paradise Woods, one of the horses that helped him win the recently concluded Santa Anita winter/spring meet, in Friday's Kentucky Oaks.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Flavien Prat was the leading rider at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting this year and led the standings for the spring-summer meeting going into Friday’s program.

Prat may very well win the title at the meeting, which ends on Tuesday, but he will have little impact on the two-week Los Alamitos summer meeting, which begins on Thursday.