Great Minds ran one of the best races of his career last year at Lone Star Park, and he is set to return to the Grand Prairie, Texas, track next weekend for the Grade 3, $200,000 Steve Sexton Mile. Great Minds won the race a year ago, when it was called the Texas Mile.
“We’re on schedule,” trainer Al Stall Jr. said Friday.
Entries for the Steve Sexton Mile will be taken Sunday. The race is scheduled for May 7.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Total handle at California tracks increased 2.7 percent in March but showed a sharp decline of 8.5 percent in the first three months of the year, according to figures released at Thursday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting.
Handle at Thoroughbred meetings at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita, the harness meeting at Cal-Expo, and the Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred meeting at Los Alamitos totaled $252.8 million in March, compared with $245.8 million in March 2016.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The anticipation of April showers on Saturday and the desire to wear May flowers resulted in a flurry of workouts at Churchill Downs on Friday in preparation for next Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, with eight prospects drilling here, and two others elsewhere, totaling half the 20-horse field that will run for the roses.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The relatively untested Battle of Midway disputed the pace in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 8 before relinquishing the lead in the final furlong.
Battle of Midway finished second by a half-length to Gormley and earned sufficient qualifying points to secure a berth in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs next Saturday. If Battle of Midway is a factor in the famous race, he will do so with a different running style.
For a Kentucky Derby starter, Irap has had a fluctuating status in the last five months.
Last December, Irap was a game second to the highly regarded Mastery in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity, triggering Triple Crown hopes for owners Paul and Zillah Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill.
“I thought he had that kind of ability,” O’Neill said this week.
Within a few months, those hopes were fading, dimmed by a second in the Mine That Bird Derby and a fourth in the Sunland Park Derby in New Mexico in March.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Junior Alvarado will undergo surgery to repair his left shoulder and be out of action about two months, according to his agent, Mike Sellitto.
Alvarado was injured in a spill at Aqueduct on Sunday’s closing-day card. Though X-rays revealed no fractures, an MRI taken on Tuesday did show some minor damage to the shoulder. Alvarado had surgery on that same shoulder last December to repair a tear in his rotator cuff.
Two-time Canadian champion older male Are You Kidding Me will make his first start since finishing eighth in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap last November in Saturday’s Woodbine feature, an allowance over 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta that serves as the local prep for the Grade 2, $175,000 Eclipse Stakes on May 20.
Trainer Roger Attfield said a troubled trip and a quarter crack were to blame for Are You Kidding Me’s disappointing result in the Clark.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association announced the five nominees for the Mike Venezia Award, given to the jockey who displays extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship, and named after the rider who died from injuries suffered in a spill here in 1988.
The nominees are Joe Bravo, Kendrick Carmouche, Javier Castellano, Rajiv Maragh, and Cornelio Velasquez.
Online voting at nyra.com/venezia was to begin Friday and will close at midnight on May 16. The winner will be announced May 17.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Grade 1 winner By the Moon will start in next Friday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont Park, trainer Michelle Nevin said Thursday.
By the Moon has not raced since losing by a neck to High Ridge Road when second in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park on Feb. 18.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Shaman Ghost, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March, will make his next start in the $300,000 Pimlico Special on May 19, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Thursday.
Shaman Ghost is owned by Frank Stronach, who also owns Pimlico. The Pimlico Special will be used as a stepping-stone to the Grade 2, $750,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont on July 8, Jerkens said.
Shaman Ghost, second to Arrogate in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup in January, has worked twice since the Santa Anita Handicap, including a five-furlong move in 1:00.50 on April 19.
