STICKNEY, Ill. – Mongolian Saturday is getting a brief rest at Locust Grove Farm in Kentucky following his ninth-place finish in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
Mongolian Saturday won the race when it was contested over 5 1/2 furlongs at Keeneland in 2015, but faded steadily after pressing pacesetter Obviously, the eventual winner, going 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.
“They went very, very fast in the race,” trainer Enebish Ganbat said.
STICKNEY, Ill. – The Pizza Man’s trip to Southern California this month is not developing as planned, and the relocation of his trainer Roger Brueggemann’s stable to there has also been put on hold.
The Pizza Man, who worked a half-mile at Hawthorne on Nov. 9 in 49.40 seconds, has for several weeks been pointed to the Hollywood Turf Cup on Nov. 25 at Del Mar, a race he decisively won in 2015. His connections, Brueggemann and owner Midwest Thoroughbreds, still would like to run in the race, but transportation has become an issue.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Approximately 20 horses worked over the Gulfstream Park main track on a quiet Monday morning while saving the best for last, Grade 2 winner Strike Charmer, who breezed an easy half-mile in 50.53 seconds with trainer Mark Hennig looking on.
Strike Charmer is one of a half-dozen horses Hennig recently shipped to Florida from his Belmont Park base, the first wave of what will wind up being a string of 20-25 runners for the winter Championship Meet, which begins Dec. 3.
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.
