At age 8, Hogy, improbably, appears to be in the best form of his life. But his connections know Hogy can’t stay on top forever, and while the gelding still is going so well, they are contemplating sending him to New York next month for the $300,000 Jaipur Invitational on the Belmont Stakes undercard.
“Right now, I got a couple options with him: either go to Canterbury or over to Belmont,” said Scott Becker, who trains Hogy for William Stiritz. “We’d kind of like to do some of this bigger stuff before he gets too old.”

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Grade 3, $100,000 Hanshin Cup last Saturday at Arlington was a career highlight for Crewman and his trainer, Dee Poulos. The 6-year-old Crewman won the first graded stakes of his career, as did Poulos, who first started a horse as head trainer in 1997.

“I’d won stakes races but never a graded stakes, so he broke the ice,” Poulos said Wednesday.

Crewman’s one-mile Polytrack time of 1:36.05 produced a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, a career best for Crewman by 12 points – not bad for a gelding making his 31st start.

Mywomanfromtokyo is at heart a route horse, not a sprinter, but for now, sprints will have to do.

The first stakes race at Prairie Meadows for older Iowa-bred females, Friday’s $65,000 Mamie Eisenhower is contested at six furlongs.

As a 3-year-old last season, Mywomanfromtokyo needed two turns to show her best. But judging from a solid second-place finish in a recent sprint allowance, the talent edge she has on her divisional rivals might be great enough to allow Mywomanfromtokyo to win at a distance short of her best.

ARCADIA, Calif. – With a purse of $500,000, the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 27 is the richest race of the track’s spring-summer meeting.

The race has drawn 20 nominations and is led by Collected, who won the Grade 2 Californian Stakes on April 22, and Midnight Storm, who was second in the Santa Anita Handicap in March. Midnight Storm was third in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 15.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Since reeling off three consecutive wins in overnight races last fall and winter, Moe Candy has been beaten in consecutive graded stakes in sprints, including a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park last month.

The losses do not concern trainer John Sadler as Moe Candy nears his next important race – Saturday’s Grade 2 Kona Gold Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Masochistic, one of the leading sprinters in California and whose recent career has been mired in controversy, has been turned out for at least 60 days, essentially ending his 2017 campaign.

Masochistic finished 13th as the 2-1 favorite in the Churchill Downs Stakes on a wet-fast track in Kentucky on May 6. Trainer Ron Ellis said Masochistic is being given a rest at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky.

“We’ve turned him out for a while,” he said.

Drawing the dreaded rail post in the cavalry charge that is the Kentucky Derby is a daunting prospect for more reasons than are obvious at first glance. That became apparent to Lookin At Lee, who began the May 6 Derby from post 1, and his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

BALTIMORE – Gunnevera tacked a three-furlong open gallop onto the end of his Wednesday morning gallop at Pimlico in his final serious work for the 142nd Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

Gunnevera, the Fountain of Youth winner and seventh in the Kentucky Derby, came onto the track from the gap at the three-sixteenths pole at 6 a.m. and backtracked around the track to the finish line. He then galloped a leisurely 1 1/8 miles under 145-pound exercise rider Victor O’Farell before quickening his pace from the seven-eighths pole to the half-mile pole.

In 1999, Charismatic upset the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland. Three years later, War Emblem posted a front-running score in the Illinois Derby at Sportsman’s Park. Both colts went on to capture the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, earning divisional titles – and in Charismatic’s case, Horse of the Year honors.

BALTIMORE – The two-day wager linking the Black-Eyed Susan on Friday with the Preakness on Saturday is among the many exotic wagers being offered here this weekend. The double carries a $1 minimum.

According to charts maintained by Pimlico, the first year for the two-day wager was 2003, when the Pimlico Special was the first leg in the double (over the years, the track has used both the Black-Eyed Susan and Pimlico Special as the lead-in race). Last year, $748,964 was handled on the two-day double, which returned $20.80 for a $2 bet on Go Maggie Go and Exaggerator.