One day after Beholder’s thrilling swan song in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, trainer Richard Mandella introduced Avenge to the elite of the female turf division. Her third in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, beaten one length by Queen’s Trust and Lady Eli, stamped Avenge as a force for 2017.
“She answered that [2016] wasn’t just a B.S. little summer campaign – it was real,” Mandella said, adding that Avenge’s BC third established her “as a real horse.”
Gormley did so little running in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last Saturday that trainer John Shirreffs took him to the track for light training the very next day.
“For whatever reason, he didn’t run at all,” Shirreffs said.
Early this week at Santa Anita, Shirreffs could not pinpoint a reason for the colt’s seventh-place Breeders’ Cup finish under Victor Espinoza.
Trainer Graham Motion left Miss Temple City in Southern California following her fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Mile while he weighs options for her next start.
Motion mentioned that Miss Temple City was invited to the Hong Kong Mile on Dec. 11 – the same race to which Tepin was invited. While Motion said he is considering running Miss Temple City in that race, he is also considering the Matriarch on Dec. 4 at Del Mar.
Joking, the Grade 1 Vosburgh winner who was scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Sprint due to illness, remains at a Southern California clinic but is improving, according to owner-trainer Charlton Baker.
Baker said Joking is over the touch of pneumonia he developed shortly after shipping in to Southern California for the Breeders’ Cup. Baker said Joking would remain at the clinic for a few more days before relocating to a farm in California for a couple of months.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Multiple-stakes-winning New York-bred sprinter Weekend Hideaway worked a half-mile in 48.58 seconds Thursday morning at Belmont Park toward a start at the end of the month.
Trainer Phil Serpe has plenty of options for Weekend Hideaway, including the Grade 3, $200,000 Fall Highweight at Aqueduct on Nov. 24, the $200,000 Fabulous Strike Handicap at Penn National on Nov. 23, or the $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel on Nov. 19.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mo Town, the promising 2-year-old who was scratched from the Grade 2 Nashua on Nov. 4 due to muscle soreness, returned to the work tab Thursday morning, breezing five furlongs in 1:01.21 at Belmont Park.
Mo Town picked up company in the workout, having to negotiate his way past a pair of Nick Zito-trained runners that broke off at the half-mile pole. Mo Town got his last quarter in 24.38 seconds and proceeded to gallop out six furlongs in 1:13.76, seven furlongs in 1:26.69, and a mile in 1:41.23.
The once-beaten Enola Gray heads the likely cast for the $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar.
Enola Gray has won four times in five starts, most recently in the California Distaff on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita. She also owns a win in the Fleet Treat Stakes here during the summer meet.
The Betty Grable, a seven-furlong race for female sprinters, is expected to draw a field of five to seven, including Barbara Beatrice, Chao Chom, Harlington’s Rose, My Fiona and, possibly, Filly On Fire and Plane Lucky.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Several promising 2-year-old fillies, including Princess Julia, a first-time starter, and Sabi Sands, who ran in a key race during the summer meet at Del Mar, are set to battle in race 3 going six furlongs here on Saturday.
Princess Julia, a daughter of Distorted Humor, was touted before the summer meet as one of trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s most-promising prospects. But from July 15 until Sept. 18, she worked just once, and missed the Del Mar summer meet.
Oscar Performance, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, is back at Belmont Park but will shortly depart for South Florida where, after a break, he will begin preparing for his 3-year-old campaign.
Trainer Brian Lynch said Oscar Performance will do basically nothing for the next two months before starting back training after the first of the year.
Lynch said he is looking forward to stretching out Oscar Performance in distance with a mid-year goal being the Belmont Derby, held in early July.
Shaman Ghost, the Grade 1 Woodward winner who was scratched out of the Breeders’ Cup Classic due to a temperature, will point to the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Wednesday.
Jerkens also might run Effinex, last year’s Clark winner who finished seventh in the Classic.
Jerkens said Shaman Ghost started galloping Wednesday at Belmont.
“We’ll see how he is the next few days,” Jerkens said. “Trying to make the Clark.”
