ARCADIA, Calif. – A gracious Julien Leparoux was honored at Santa Anita on Sunday with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which recognizes a rider’s accomplishments and personal character.
Leparoux was joined in the brief ceremony by fellow riders, including past recipients Mike Smith and Patrick Valenzuela, as well as friends and family.
The Woolf Award, which can be won once, is determined by a national vote by jockeys.
The Flightline colt purchased on Friday for $10.5 million at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. 2-year-olds in training sale in Florida arrived at Bob Baffert’s stable at Santa Anita on Saturday.
The unnamed colt will be owned by Amr Zedan, one of Baffert’s principal clients.
“He’s a specimen – a man among boys, really,” Baffert told Santa Anita publicity. “With his pedigree, you know why he cost so much.”
Trainer Dan Ward is joining Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s Midwest team as an assistant in advance of the Churchill Downs meeting that begins Saturday.
Ward, who in the past has assisted two other Hall of Fame trainers in Bobby Frankel and Jerry Hollendorfer, has had a stable at Oaklawn Park this year that included Majestic Oops, winner of the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes in March.
Baffert is expected to have more than 30 horses at Churchill Downs this spring, including many of his leading runners. The stable is scheduled to travel from California to Kentucky this week.
Generally, the racing year has gone great for trainer Brian Lynch. The afternoon of Feb. 14 did not go so great.
Lynch ran five horses that day at Gulfstream, the highest-placed finisher third at odds-on. The 4-year-old filly Shred the Gnar went off the 6-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Royal Delta and lost by nearly 20 lengths.
Over the last five years, Graham Motion has trained 16 different fillies and mares to win graded turf stakes and only half as many colts and geldings. For now, that balance has shifted.
Four-year-old gelding Cruise the Nile landed the Henry Clark Stakes last weekend at Laurel Park. He’s unbeaten in four grass races and a winter allowance winner over rising grass star Burnham Square, and he’s not nearly as accomplished as the 4-year-old colt Test Score and the 5-year-old horse One Stripe.
As easy and dominant as Burnham’s Square’s victory Saturday at Keeneland in the Elkhorn Stakes looked, his trainer, Ian Wilkes, firmly believes that was just the start of things.
Burnham Square didn’t make the lead in the Elkhorn, a three-turn, 1 1/2-mile grass race, until he hit the three-sixteenths pole, yet he finished so powerfully that he won by 9 3/4 lengths. Did world-class horses populate the Grade 2 Elkhorn? They did not, but runner-up Desvio won the Sycamore over 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland’s fall meet.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A total of 83 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds were nominated to the 2026 Canadian Triple Crown by the April 1 deadline, including Coronation Futurity victor Fire and Wine and Keeneland maiden winner Magical Factor.
The Canadian Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds commences with the 167th running of the 1 1/4 -mile King’s Plate on the synthetic Tapeta surface Aug. 15. It will be followed by the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, a 1 3/16-mile dirt route Sept. 7 at Fort Erie; and the $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on the grass at Woodbine Sept. 27.
Pentathlon, winner of both his starts this year, including the Army Mule Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 28, is on target for the Grade 3, $175,000 Westchester Stakes at Aqueduct on May 3, trainer Shug McGaughey said.
Pentathlon is still in Florida, where on Thursday he worked three furlongs in 36.20 seconds at Payson Park. McGaughey said Pentathlon may have one more work at Payson before shipping to New York at the end of next week.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of Napoleon Solo know where they want to get this summer with their 3-year-old colt. They’re just not sure what path to take the remainder of the spring.
The Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on July 18 at Monmouth Park is “the early summer goal” for Napoleon Solo, trainer Chad Summers said. His owner, Al Gold, is a New Jersey guy. Cyberknife’s victory in the 2022 edition is arguably his racing highlight.
After the long fall and winter stand at Mahoning Valley Racetrack in Youngstown, the Ohio Thoroughbred circuit is on the move. Spring and summer action in the Buckeye State begins with Thistledown’s meet opener on Monday in North Randall, just outside of Cleveland. Belterra Park in Cincinnati will follow, opening its season on Friday, May 1.
An eight-race Monday program kicks off Thistledown’s 100-day live racing season, which runs through Oct. 8. The track runs four days a week, generally on a Monday-Thursday schedule.
