LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With one eye on his latest star Not This Time, trainer Dale Romans is busy getting the rest of his sizable stable ready for final starts of the Churchill Downs fall meet before leaving for the long winter in Florida.
Romans said he will enter Cherry Wine – one of the few holdovers from the 2016 Triple Crown series – in a Churchill race “before too long.” Cherry Wine has regrouped since three subpar races following his runner-up finish in the May 21 Preakness.
Technically, last Saturday’s Grade 3 Red Smith Handicap was the last graded turf stakes of the year on this circuit. But Saturday’s ungraded $150,000 Artie Schiller Stakes is certainly coming up like a graded event.
Heart to Heart, a seven-time graded stakes winner and earner of more than $930,000, heads what is expected to be a large field for the second running of this one-mile turf race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Noholdingback Bear faded to seventh and last in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5, and trainer Michael De Paulo said a poor start and a throat issue were to blame.
“I guess he didn’t break that well,” he said. “His head was turned when they sprung the latch. It was just the beginning of a bad day. He’s got a little issue with his throat right now. We’re going to try to straighten that out. But soundness-wise, he’s fine. He should be back and he should be fine.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Channel Maker, who finished seventh in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4, has been sent to a farm in Ocala, Fla., where he’ll get a freshening before preparing for next summer’s Queen’s Plate.
“He’s turned out in a big field,” trainer Daniel Vella said. “He’s doing fantastic. Our focus now really is the Queen’s Plate and the Canadian races for next year. He’ll go down to Gulfstream around the middle of December.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Kevin Attard-trained duo of Calgary Cat and Melmich have returned to Woodbine after running on the Breeders’ Cup cards Nov. 4-5 at Santa Anita.
Calgary Cat was Attard’s first Breeders’ Cup starter when he finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 5. He rallied from well off the pace along the outside to finish 2 1/4 lengths behind winner Obviously.
“I was extremely happy,” Attard said. “He ran really well. He closed a lot of ground. I don’t think I could ask for much more.”
Emerald Downs will race 70 days in 2017, from April 8-Sept. 17, the track announced.
The race dates were approved Thursday at a Washington Horse Racing Commission meeting.
Emerald will race Saturdays and Sundays only during the first and last two weeks of the season, with Friday racing beginning April 21. There will be two Mondays of racing, July 3 and May 29.
Post times remain 2 p.m. most weekends and holidays and 6:30 p.m. Fridays. Saturday cards in July also will begin at 6:30 p.m.
The new pick six rules instituted this meet contributed to a payoff of more than $1 million on Sunday, when a single ticket took down the pick six after no one hit it the first two days of the meet, Friday and Saturday.
Under the new rules, 70 percent of the pool goes to those with six winners. If no one hits six, that money is carried over in the general pool.
Owing to an injury to his right hand plus six days of suspensions, jockey Rafael Bejarano will not ride until Nov. 26, which makes Flavien Prat the favorite to win the riding title at the Del Mar fall meet. Prat wasted no time jumping out to the lead, winning four races the first three days of the meet.
Bejarano and Prat tied for leading rider during the summer meet here, which marked the fifth straight summer Bejarano had either won the title outright, or shared it. He also won the title here last fall.
While jockey Victor Espinoza has had his ride on California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic picked over since the race, Sherman said Espinoza has done so well on California Chrome over the years that they’ll be a team right through the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park.
“I’d never take him off for one race,” said Sherman, who admitted a number of jockey agents had phoned him inquiring if a spot on California Chrome might open.
“When you lose, you’re always looking to blame someone,” Sherman said. “He’s ridden so many good races on him.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – California Chrome has come out of his runner-up effort in last week’s Breeders’ Cup Classic in such good shape that trainer Art Sherman said he’ll need to give him a workout next Saturday as the horse begins preparations for the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park.
“He came out of it good. He’s a remarkable horse,” Sherman said Sunday morning at Del Mar. “I’ll give him an easy half next Saturday. I’ve got to do something with him. He’s pretty strong.”
