Wed, 03/22/2017 - 12:32

Katie Davis collects first stakes win in Conniver

Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club
Next Best Thing provides jockey Katie Davis, 25, with her first career stakes victory in the Conniver Stakes.

Katie Davis went down hard in a spill at Laurel Park on March 11. She took off her mounts the next day but dusted herself off and, despite still being sore, came back a week later to win back-to-back races, including the first stakes of her career.

Davis, 25, is the older sister of Dylan Davis and the younger sibling of Jackie Davis, both of whom ride in New York. Their father is Robbie Davis, an elite New York jockey during the 1980s and ‘90s who won more than 3,300 races and whose mounts earned in excess of $115 million.

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 12:20

Champagne Room will continue to race

Barbara D. Livingston
Champagne Room will be out of training for 90 days following surgery to remove a bone chip.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Champagne Room, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2016, will resume training this summer after a 90-day break to recover from recent surgery to remove a bone chip from an ankle.

Trainer Peter Eurton said on Wednesday that Champagne Room’s owners have opted to leave the filly in training after considering retiring and breeding her.

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 12:20

Juggling two jobs works well for Dilodovico

Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club
Laki, greatly improved since he was gelded, won the Not For Love Stakes last weekend for trainer Damon Dilodovico.

Few people have as unusual a workday as Damon Dilodovico. As he has done for years, Dilodovico trains a 20-horse stable at Laurel Park in the morning. In the afternoon, he changes hats and works for International Sound, a video production company that handles the Maryland tracks.

On Barbara Fritchie Stakes Day at Laurel last month, Dilodovico was manning the video camera in the winner’s circle during post-stakes interviews. Last Saturday, Dilodovico was on the other side of the lens after sending out Laki to win the $75,000 Not For Love Stakes.

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 12:10

Finest City, Vale Dori could meet again in Beholder Mile

Barbara D. Livingston
Vale Dori (right) wins the Santa Margarita over Finest City (left) last Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Vale Dori and Finest City, the first two finishers in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday, may have a rematch in early June.

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 10:39

Classic Empire gets change of scenery, works five furlongs

Barbara D. Livingston
Classic Empire opens as the 5-1 favorite on Derby Watch despite his third-place finish in the Holy Bull.

Eclipse Award winner Classic Empire, who on Sunday refused to work at Palm Meadows in south Florida for the second time in less than three weeks, on Wednesday worked five furlongs in 1:01.40 at Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, Fla., where he had been sent on Sunday.

Classic Empire worked in company and put away his workmate, according to Norman Casse, the son and assistant to trainer Mark Casse, who is vacationing this week.

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 09:46

Spiral Stakes contenders don't have Derby fever – yet

Barbara D. Livingston
Kitten's Cat (7), owned and bred by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, might be favored in the Spiral Stakes on Saturday.

FLORENCE, Ky. – Not a single one of the 3-year-olds entered in the Spiral Stakes had blipped the Kentucky Derby radar before this week. Still, a victory in the Turfway Park showcase on Saturday equates to a spot in the Derby starting gate, although most horsemen this side of Ken Ramsey aren’t quite ready to fully commit to proceeding that way in case they win.

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 09:44

McCarthy, Magee on hot streaks at Laurel

Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club
Trevor McCarthy has ridden 31 winners so far this season in Maryland.

Jockey Trevor McCarthy is coming off a huge week at Laurel Park during which he won with nine of his 21 mounts. A total of 27 races were run at Laurel last week.

On Friday, McCarthy won races 5, 6, and 7. He returned Saturday to win races 1, 2, and 3. The only race he lost during that span was race 8 on Friday, and you can’t blame him for that since he didn’t have a mount.

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 09:00

Casse thinking of sending filly for Fair Grounds Oaks

Barbara D. Livingston
Pretty City Dancer (left) is one of three fillies Mark Casse is considering for the Fair Grounds Oaks.

Trainer Mark Casse already has penciled in Noble Bird for the New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds on April 1, and he said he is considering sending a filly, too, for the Fair Grounds Oaks that day.

“You could see Pretty City Dancer or possibly Salty or Corporate Queen run there,” Casse said. “All of them are fillies we think are really good, and we just need to separate them.”

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 08:56

Commonwealth next up for Yockey's Warrior

Amanda Hodges Weir/Hodges Photography
Yockey's Warrior earned a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure for winning the Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds last time out.

Yockey’s Warrior, the 5-year-old sprinter whose three-race win streak includes the Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds, will make his next start in the seven-furlong, $250,000 Commonwealth Stakes on April 8 at Keeneland, trainer Al Stall said.

Yockey’s Warrior most recently shipped to Oaklawn Park to win a high-level allowance race, and he had been considered for the six-furlong Count Fleet Sprint Handicap there next month, but Stall wants to focus on longer sprints with Yockey’s Warrior, who won at Keeneland last fall.

Mon, 03/20/2017 - 15:00

Chocolate Ride finds sweet spot

Amanda Hodges Weir/Hodges Photography
Chocolate Ride wins his second Fair Grounds Handicap in February.

At this time the last two years, Chocolate Ride was preparing for the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial. Chocolate Ride won the 2015 Muniz, capping a Fair Grounds season where he rose from a middling first-level allowance runner to serious graded-stakes horse. Last year, he was a solid fourth in the race, beaten three lengths.

But expectations have been scaled back for Chocolate Ride this season, and rather than the Muniz, he runs in an optional claimer at about a mile on turf on a 10-race program unusually strong for a Thursday.