ARCADIA, Calif. – Venice, the 2-year-old filly who starts for the first time in Thursday’s second race at Santa Anita, was a backyard horse for owner and trainer Kristin Mulhall.
Mulhall bred Venice, who drew the rail in an eight-runner maiden race at 4 1/2 furlongs for juvenile California-bred fillies.
“She’s huge,” Mulhall said. “You wouldn’t know she’s a 2-year-old.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hence won the Grade 3 Sunland Derby in his last race and has started to feel like a live horse in the Kentucky Derby here on Saturday, but if for some reason things don’t work out on the racetrack, Hence can always turn to a career as a cutting horse.
Making his 3-year-old debut over a sloppy track in a Jan. 16 maiden race at Oaklawn Park, Hence rallied from midpack, was going best with a quarter-mile to run, made the lead a furlong out, and was on his way to an easy victory. Then, suddenly, he was not.
While everyone everywhere will be focused on Churchill Downs on Saturday, you also might want to keep tabs on Belmont Park, where the day’s three stakes are coming up strong, especially the Grade 3 Westchester.
The one-mile race for 4-year-olds and up is expected to feature the return of Mohaymen, the best 3-year-old in the East early in 2016, and Connect, who blossomed in the fall by winning the Pennsylvania Derby and Cigar Mile.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Asmussen checked off a couple more boxes last year when he won the Belmont Stakes with Creator and was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame.
They were the latest among the major feats and honors accumulated by Asmussen in 30-plus years as a Thoroughbred trainer. Now 51, he has pretty much done it all – except for one little something.
“Oh, I’m well aware of what’s missing,” Asmussen said with a big laugh in a recent interview. “I’ve got one major vacancy on my résumé.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas announced Sunday at the popular Fan Fest Day event at the Kentucky Derby Museum that he is donating his vast collection of racing memorabilia to the museum.
The collection includes trophies from his four wins in both the Derby and Kentucky Oaks; his Eclipse Awards as top trainer; artwork and photos; and many more items from his fabulous career.
Lukas, 81, said the museum “is an ideal fit to protect and showcase my legacy for many years to come.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Whitmore would have seemed like a prime candidate for the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Derby card after emerging as one of the top sprinters in North America over the winter at Oaklawn Park. But trainer Ron Moquett said Monday he was very unlikely to enter him in the seven-furlong race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Salomon Del Valle was just 20 years old when he came to America for the first time. He joined thousands of his Venezuelan countrymen in attending the 1971 Belmont Stakes in New York, where a previously unheralded colt from Venezuela, Canonero II, was trying to complete a sweep of the Triple Crown.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With two defections one week before the Kentucky Derby changing the makeup of the field, Sonneteer will seek to become the first maiden to win the Run for the Roses since Brokers Tip in 1933.
After finishing second in the Rebel Stakes and fourth in the Arkansas Derby, Sonneteer sat 22nd on the Derby points list, behind Lookin At Lee on the bubble of the 20-horse field. Trainer Todd Pletcher declared Malagacy and Battalion Runner out of the race last Saturday, letting Sonneteer and Lookin At Lee into the main body of the field.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the land of the Derby, might the one-eyed horse be king on Saturday?
That is what those associated with Patch are hoping, as Patch, who had his left eye removed before he ever raced, attempts to become the first horse with just one eye to win the Kentucky Derby.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was not a good weekend if your name was Syndergaard.
On Saturday night, the equine Syndergaard finished fifth – elevated to fourth by the stewards – in the $100,000 William Walker Stakes at Churchill Downs. On Sunday, the pitcher for whom the colt is named, Noah Syndergaard of the New York Mets, left his start against the Washington Nationals with an injury.
