OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Looking to take advantage of growing interest in turf racing and a lack of races run at marathon distances on that surface, the New York Racing Association will increase purses for turf races at 10 furlongs or longer to $90,000 at the Belmont spring-summer meet, which begins Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Shagaf, the winner of the 2016 Gotham Stakes, returns from a layoff of nearly one year in a third-level allowance race Sunday at Aqueduct. It will be Shagaf’s first start since he was eased while finishing last in the Kentucky Derby.
Shagaf came out of the Derby with chips in his left knee and left front ankle that were surgically removed. Shagaf rejoined trainer Chad Brown’s stable at Palm Meadows this winter and returned to the work tab in mid-January.
Bode Miller, an Olympic gold medalist in alpine skiing, is like all those who participate in that sport: a risk taker. Now, Miller is participating in another high-risk endeavor, horse racing, buying a small interest in Spiral Stakes winner Fast and Accurate ahead of the May 6 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Four of the major contenders for the May 5 Kentucky Oaks already have settled in at Churchill Downs, with Miss Sky Warrior among those sent here in time to have a couple of serious breezes over the local surface.
Miss Sky Warrior arrived Monday from south Florida and breezed Thursday, going a half-mile in 49 seconds.
“In watching the weather, I wanted to get in a little early,” trainer Kelly Breen said Friday. “She’ll have one more work next week. I just want to get her as good as I can possibly get her.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It isn’t by accident that the 52-day Hastings meet that begins Sunday has one of the track’s strongest opening-day cards in recent memory. Incentive programs put in place in recent years are beginning to pay off.
According to racing secretary Nichelle Milner, there are more than 100 additional horses stabled on the grounds than were here at this time last year.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Always Dreaming and Gunnevera will say goodbye to south Florida in the next few days – but not before the winners of the Grade 1 Florida Derby and Grade 2 Fountain of Youth here this winter turned in their final local workouts Friday for the Kentucky Derby.
Always Dreaming and stablemate Patch, who is also being pointed to the Derby by trainer Todd Pletcher, worked at their winter home, the Palm Beach Downs training center in Delray. Gunnevera worked at his permanent residence at Gulfstream Park West.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Paradise Woods continues to do everything easily. On Friday, she worked an effortless half-mile, her first breeze since taking the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks by 11 3/4 lengths on April 8 in her third career start.
Regular rider Flavien Prat worked Paradise Woods minutes before 8 a.m. on a warm Friday at Santa Anita. Trainer Richard Mandella did not expect her to work fast; she went in 47.60 seconds by herself, with minimal encouragement.
“You could see it was pretty easy, real nice,” Mandella said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pink Lloyd recorded his first stakes victory and won Woodbine’s first stakes race of the season in last weekend’s Jacques Cartier Stakes. He likely will make his next start May 6 in the $125,000 New Providence Stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds and up, trainer Robert Tiller said.
The lightly raced 5-year-old is now a four-time winner in six career starts but didn’t make it to the races until last August. Tiller said minor injuries delayed Pink Lloyd’s racing debut.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Caren, the 2016 Canadian Horse of the Year, will make her 4-year-old debut Sunday on Woodbine’s Tapeta main track in the Grade 3, $125,000 Whimsical Stakes, which drew a strong field of eight older fillies and mares to go six furlongs.
The Whimsical will be Caren’s first start since she finished 11th in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Irap and Practical Joke, the one-two finishers in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 8, both turned in their first works since then on Friday at Keeneland, as a flurry of Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks hopefuls worked to beat the rain that was expected that evening and through the weekend.
