ELMONT, N.Y. – War Dancer was favored in last year’s Grade 3 Knickerbocker Stakes despite having not won a race in the previous 17 months. War Dancer finished seventh.
On Monday, when Belmont hosts a 10-race Columbus Day card, War Dancer likley will not be favored in the $200,000 Knickerbocker, but he will coming in off a win.
War Dancer drew the outside post in a nine-horse field entered Friday for the Knickerbocker, run at 1 1/8 miles over the inner turf course.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – If perfection is possible, Mitchell Murrill might have found it with the opening of the Keeneland fall meet Friday – just like the thousands of fans who turned out.
Under bright skies and ideal weather, Murrill never had a straw in his path when guiding You Bought Her to a 5 1/2-length romp in the first race of the 17-day meet.
“It was a clean trip on a really nice mare,” said Murrill, a 22-year-old native of Mobile, Ala. “It’s a great feeling to win the first race of the meet.”
The stakes winner Bowies Hero will be favored to win his second consecutive stakes in Monday’s $100,000 Zuma Beach Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf at Santa Anita. On the same program, the stakes winners Con Te Partiro and Happy Mesa are expected to run in the $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at a mile on turf.
The races could produce runners for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and Juvenile Fillies Turf here on Nov. 4.
Jockey Edwin Maldonado is targeting a comeback in early 2017 from severe rib injuries sustained in a training accident at Del Mar last month.
Maldonado said on Thursday that he is in the midst of a four-month recovery and will begin physical therapy and rehabilitation in November.
“I think it will be four months,” he said in a phone interview. “I’m not quite sure yet. I’ll go see the doctor every month. I start my physical therapy in a month.”
Win the Space, third behind California Chrome and Dortmund in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes last Saturday, remains a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, trainer George Papaprodromou said.
Papaprodromou said a decision will be made after discussions in the coming weeks with owner Rustin Kretz. He said the Classic is more likely than the $1 million BC Dirt Mile on Nov. 4.
“We’re leaning toward the Classic,” Papaprodromou said. “It will be a smaller field, and I prefer that.”
Forevamo has been turned out at WinStar Farm for rehabilitation since finishing sixth in the Aug. 6 West Virginia Derby. The 3-year-old Forevamo was the runner-up in the Grade 2 Risen Star and Grade 3 Pat Day Mile.
“There’s been no surgery, no nothing,” said trainer Al Stall Jr. “We’re just letting him grow up. Ideally, we’ll have him back in the entries at Fair Grounds early next year.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist worked a half-mile in 50.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday, his first serious exercise since a sixth-place finish in the Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 20.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said he plans to give Nyquist three works this month in advance of the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic here on Nov. 5. Nyquist will be retired to stud in Kentucky after the BC Classic, O’Neill said.
Nyquist worked alone on Friday. He ran the final furlong in 11.40 seconds and galloped out five furlongs in 1:04, according to O’Neill.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Catch a Glimpse will return to the scene of her greatest victory when looking to avenge her only turf defeat as part of a terrific lineup of 3-year-old turf fillies expected next Saturday for the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.
It was at Keeneland last fall that Catch a Glimpse won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf during an eight-race win streak in grass races. That streak finally ended Aug. 21 at Saratoga, where Time and Motion nailed her in the final yards of the Grade 2 Lake Placid.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kitcat, a Group 1 winner in her native Chile, will have her American debut in Saturday’s $70,000 Swingtime Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Santa Anita.
Kitcat is using the race as a prep for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile here on Nov. 5. A 4-year-old, Kitcat has won her last four starts and earned a fees-paid berth in the BC Mile with her win in the Group 1 Club Hipico Falabella Stakes in Chile on May 22, her most recent start.
