Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer spent the early part of Thanksgiving week making decisions.
First, he had to decide which of the three 2-year-old fillies that he nominated would run in Friday’s $50,000-added Golden Gate Debutante. The answer was all three: stakes-placed Doowop Shedoo, recent maiden winner Nightengale Miss, and maiden speedster Americana.
When Faith Taylor took over operations for Lloyd Mason when he retired from training, she won with her first starter, which came Aug. 5 at Santa Rosa. She’s continued to do well, having won with four of her 28 starters, including two of her last three, with a return on investment of $2.39.
That first win by Taylor came with Madame Clouet, who has won twice more for Taylor, including a victory at Golden Gate on Nov. 13. Last Sunday she won a maiden race with More Power to Him.
“Everything’s going well,” she said. “It’s kind of tough getting horses in sometimes.”
Jockey Chris DeCarlo hopes to return to riding this weekend after escaping serious injuries in an ugly-looking spill Saturday at Aqueduct.
On Monday, DeCarlo said he had soreness in his left calf and in his lower back but structurally there was no other damage from the incident, which occurred in the sixth race when his mount, Enchanteresse, appeared to clip heels with the pacesetting Sycee entering the far turn of a second-level turf allowance race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A field of nine is expected to be entered Wednesday for Saturday’s $500,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, the last Grade 1 race of the year on the New York Racing Association circuit.
The latest runner to commit to the race is Divining Rod, a graded stakes winner in 2015 who has won two of three starts in 2016 after returning from a layoff of more than a year.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dale Romans knows what Thanksgiving dinner is like after winning the Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs.
“The turkey tastes a lot better,” Romans said.
Stuffing, pumpkin pie and everything else will also taste better if Romans can win the Grade 2 Falls City for the third time. He’ll saddle Go Maggie Go, one of the highweights and top contenders in a field of 11 fillies and mares in the 101st running of the $200,000 race, the 10th of 12 on a Thanksgiving Day card that gets an early start at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If two horses are better than one, well, Jimmy Jerkens’ chance of winning the Clark Handicap for the second straight year just got better.
Jerkens had initially planned to start only Shaman Ghost, and he confirmed Monday that he also has sent Effinex to Churchill Downs for Friday’s 143rd running of the $500,000 Clark, the traditional showcase race of the fall meet.
Effinex, the 2015 Clark winner for owner-breeder Russell Cohen’s Tri-Bone Stables, most recently was a distant seventh in the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Long-distance specialist Patrioticandproud got his season back on track with a win Oct. 29, and he could be headed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Valedictory Stakes over 1 3/4 miles on Tapeta on the meet’s closing day, Dec. 4.
“We’re thinking about it,” trainer Mark Casse said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sailing Home graduated in style in his career debut here Oct. 30, going gate to wire by 9 3/4 lengths at six furlongs on the Tapeta under jockey Patrick Husbands. He’ll quickly get an opportunity to test himself against stakes company as trainer Mark Casse said he would be pointed to Saturday’s $125,000 Swynford Stakes for 2-year olds, which also will be run over six furlongs on Tapeta.
Casse had high praise for Sailing Home after his debut win.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Leading trainer Mark Casse celebrated his 16th stakes win of the season and 92nd win of the meet with Let It Ride Mom in Saturday’s Glorious Song Stakes. There are just two weeks of racing left to go, and Casse should be well represented in the final stakes races of the meet as he looks to record 100 wins in a Woodbine season for the second time.
Miss Temple City, fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile last time out but winner of two Grade 1 stakes against males earlier this year at Keeneland, and Time and Motion, who has won 5 of 6 starts this year, including the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Keeneland, head a star-studded cast of 25 nominated to the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes on closing day of the meet Dec. 4.
