Phlash Phelps was perfect last year, winning all four of his starts, including the Maryland Million Turf. This season, things haven’t gone as smoothly.
Phlash Phelps is 1 for 4 this year as a 5-year-old, but on Saturday at Laurel Park, he’ll have a chance to get back on track when he seeks a repeat victory on Maryland Million Day. Phlash Phelps will be a top contender in the Turf, as he will be moving back into restricted company after making three of his starts this year against open company.
A waiting game is about to begin for some owners and trainers with hopefuls for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
There are likely to be approximately 20 fillies pre-entered for the one-mile race next week, with a maximum of 14 allowed to start. When the list of pre-entries is announced next Wednesday, several runners will be on an also-eligible list, waiting to see if there are defections from the list of invited runners before entries are taken Oct. 31.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – All-sources and ontrack handle at Hastings both were up at the 2016 meet that concluded Sunday.
All-sources handle for the 53-day meet was $31,509,665, up 5.9 percent from $29,760,483 last year, when the meet had the same number of days. The ontrack number was up marginally to $6,826,077 from $6,707,777 last year.
Christophe Clement and Graham Motion are considering the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies for their recent Grade 1 winners, but both horsemen are taking a cautious approach and are keeping close tabs on how their horses recover from their races.
Clement conditions Yellow Agate, the winner of the Oct. 8 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park. Motion trains Dancing Rags, who won the Alcibiades the previous day. The races are part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, giving Yellow Agate and Dancing Rags fees-paid berths in the Juvenile Fillies.
Stonetastic has been declared out of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint following a runner-up finish as the favorite Oct. 8 in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland.
“We needed a lot of scenarios to go right to convince us to go,” said Kelly Breen, who trains Stonetastic for the Stoneway Farm of Jim Stone. “We just couldn’t get enough stars to align. If she would’ve won at Keeneland, we probably would’ve gone, but she didn’t. That was the main thing.”
MIAMI – Trainer Larry Bates’s 2-year-old filly Brahms Cat may be the one to beat in Wednesday’s $34,000 allowance/optional-claiming feature at Gulfstream Park West.
Brahms Cat, a daughter of the late sire Wildcat Heir, brought $30,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. this year. Bates has been patient with the young filly owned by Bluestone Thoroughbreds LLC.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Twilight Eclipse is being pointed to the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf for the fourth straight year.
Twilight Eclipse was third behind Main Sequence and Flintshire in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Turf, the most recent one held at Santa Anita, which is the site of this year’s event. Last year, Twilight Eclipse finished eighth in the Turf, run over a Keeneland course with plenty of give in the ground.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Entries for Saturday’s Empire Showcase Day program, an 11-race card of all New York-bred races, will be drawn on Wednesday. Two familiar names, Moonlight Song and Notacatbutallama, will not be among those entered this year because both have been retired.
Moonlight Song, a 9-year-old gelding who won the 2014 Hudson Stakes on Showcase Day, came out of his last work with an issue, according to trainer Charlton Baker.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As Rudy Rodriguez has worked his way to the top of the trainer standings this fall at Belmont Park, one thing has become evident: He has a talented and diverse group of 2-year-old fillies.
Four of Rodriguez’s meet-leading 22 victories this fall have come with juvenile fillies, including Arella Rockstar, who captured Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Matron Stakes as a 12-1 longshot. Arella Rockstar’s victory was part of a 4-for-4 afternoon for Rodriguez, who opened up a 22-19 lead over Chad Brown in the Belmont fall trainer standings.
