LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Always Dreaming, the Florida Derby winner and a leading contender for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, has made life challenging for trainer Todd Pletcher since his arrival at Churchill Downs.
Always Dreaming has been too aggressive in his morning gallops for Pletcher’s liking. On Monday, Pletcher made a change of equipment and a change of rider, with mixed results.
The eighth race at Belmont Park on Wednesday is a second-level optional claimer at 1 1/4 miles over the inner turf. A field of nine seems likely since two of the entrants were entered for the main track only and rain is not forecast until later in the week.
The graded-stakes winner Mr Maybe will be offered for the optional price of $62,500, only the second time he has been up for sale in a race. Mr Maybe, 6, won his maiden in a $50,000 claiming race at Delaware Park in August 2014.
Disco Partner, who looped the field en route to a 1 3/4-length victory in the Elusive Quality Stakes last Saturday at Belmont Park, could run back in the Grade 3, $300,000 Jaipur Invitational, according to trainer Christophe Clement.
Disco Partner, owned and bred by Frank and Patricia Generazio, was making his first start since joining Clement’s Payson Park stable in March. Disco Partner earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure, the second-best mark of his career, trailing only the 102 he earned in winning the Troy Stakes at Saratoga last summer.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There are clear differences between Nyquist, who came into his Kentucky Derby win as an unbeaten juvenile champion, and Irap, who won his maiden in the Blue Grass Stakes for the same connections.
“Nyquist is LeBron James, and Irap’s more like Charles Barkley,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “[Irap is] solid. Even if he’s in the gym every day, he’s always going to be a little bit heavy. He continues to carry a lot of weight, and he’s got tremendous amounts of stamina.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Pizza Man, the winner of the 2015 Arlington Million, is gearing up for another shot at the Arlington Park showcase by training at the Trackside training center near Churchill Downs.
Now 8, The Pizza Man has begun a series of workouts for trainer Roger Brueggemann that his connections hope will result in two prep races leading into the Aug. 12 Million.
“He’s doing great,” said Jim Schenck, racing manager for the gelding’s owner and breeder, the Midwest Thoroughbreds of Richard and Karen Papiese. “He got time off in Ocala before coming back to Roger.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Masochistic, the brilliant sprinter who has gained no small amount of notoriety, is returning to where he first became infamous.
It was three years ago, on the Kentucky Derby undercard, when Masochistic won a six-furlong maiden race by 14 lengths under Victor Espinoza in a major betting coup, having been hammered down to 2-1 after he had finished fifth at 8-1 in his debut at Santa Anita against California-breds seven weeks earlier.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The former claimer Farhaan is bound for a Grade 1 race in June after winning the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.
Farhaan, claimed for $40,000 at Saratoga last summer, won his first graded stakes and the fourth stakes of his career in the $100,690 Thunder Road Stakes for turf milers.
Trainer Phil D’Amato on Sunday said Farhaan will be nominated for the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes on May 28 and the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf on June 3.
“I’d be leaning toward the Shoemaker,” D’Amato said.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Cloudy
Track: Fast
Temp.: 73
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Unseasonably warm weather greeted horsemen when training began at 5:45 Sunday morning, but things were really heating up about three hours later when McCraken put in his final major work for the 2017 Kentucky Derby.
The racetrack was on the quick side throughout the session; horses were working into a stiff headwind down the stretch that became even more pronounced after the renovation break.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Vale Dori, the winner of four consecutive graded stakes since early December, is scheduled to start in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita on May 7, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Vale Dori worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Santa Anita on Sunday, her first work since a six-furlong work in 1:12 on April 19. Baffert said the $100,000 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles was preferred to stakes at Churchill Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – McCraken, one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby next Saturday, and Fast and Accurate, one of the longer shots in the field, both completed their serious training for the Derby with five-furlong workouts Sunday morning at Churchill Downs.
They were two of three Derby runners to work Sunday. At the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, Wood Memorial winner Irish War Cry had his final work.
McCraken was timed by Daily Racing Form in 1:00.67 under his regular rider, Brian Hernandez Jr.
