Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist returned to California on Wednesday and was on the track Thursday morning for a jog, but what comes next is uncertain.
“He’s back here, he looks fantastic, but plans are up in the air right now,” trainer Doug O’Neill said.
O’Neill said that if Nyquist is to run in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita the weekend of Nov. 4-5, he will run in the Classic. He said there is no interest, for instance, in the Dirt Mile.
Texas Red, the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner who has not raced since the 2015 Travers, returned to trainer Keith Desormeaux’s barn at Santa Anita on Thursday and is being pointed to the winter meeting at Santa Anita, which begins Dec. 26.
Texas Red has had a series of minor injuries that have kept him on the sidelines for more than a year. He was near a return earlier this year at Santa Anita, but needed more time. Desormeaux said he has been recuperating at nearby Peacefield Farm in Southern California.
Jockey Dennis Collins could be facing permanent paralysis from the waist down following a spill last Sunday at the Downs at Albuquerque. The 53-year-old remained at a New Mexico hospital Friday, recovering from surgery to stabilize his spine due to an extensive T-4 compression fracture, according to his fiancée, trainer Heather Brock.
The surgery was performed Monday at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.
Keeneland begins its 17-day meet next Friday with the usual barrage of major Breeders’ Cup preps on the opening three-day FallStars Weekend. Nine graded stakes, with all but two carrying Win and You’re In provisions toward the Nov. 4-5 Breeders’ Cup, will be run Friday through Sunday at the Lexington, Ky., track.
Here are some quick takes on the weekend races. Entries for the Friday opener will be drawn Tuesday, with a 72-hour draw schedule also in effect for Saturday and Sunday and for most of a meet that runs through Oct. 29.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With a decision on her next start expected Sunday morning, Tepin was sent through her final pre-race work when breezing a half-mile in 49 seconds Friday morning on the Saratoga turf.
Tepin, winner of the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Mile against males and a leading contender for 2016 Horse of the Year, will prep for a title defense in the Nov. 5 BC Mile by running in either the Shadwell Turf Mile or the First Lady, both Grade 1 one-mile turf events next Saturday at Keeneland.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Haveyougoneaway, the New York-bred filly who won a pair of stakes at Saratoga, including the Grade 1 Ballerina, worked four furlongs in 47 seconds over the Belmont main track Thursday morning. She is preparing for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
With the exercise rider Orlando Tapia maintaining a good hold on Haveyougoneaway, the filly went her first quarter in 23.11 seconds and her second quarter in 23.89.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The $150,000 Joseph A. Gimma Stakes on Sunday drew a field of 13 New York-bred juvenile fillies, while the $150,000 Bertram F. Bongard for New York-bred males on the same card managed to draw a field of only five.
The Gimma drew Iron Mizz, who won the Seeking the Ante Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 26 by three-quarters of a length over Code Red, who is back in this field.
Ribbonite won the Lady Finger by 6 3/4 lengths at Finger Lakes on Sept. 10, giving Robbie Davis his first stakes win as a trainer. She is wheeling back on three weeks’ rest in the Gimma.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A field of eight marathon types was entered in the $200,000 Temperence Hill, to be run Sunday at Belmont, and the 1 5/8-mile race appears wide open.
Baccelo, who won the Grade 3 Iselin at Monmouth and was third in the Seattle Slew Stakes here, might rate slight favoritism if he runs. Trainer David Jacobson had mentioned that he was pointing Baccelo to the Grade 2 Kelso going a mile here next Saturday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There were no European shippers for Saturday’s Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, but three horses who have been racing exclusively in Europe will be running in Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Miss Grillo, for 2-year-old fillies on turf, is one of four stakes on Sunday’s card. The others are the $200,000 Temperence Hill Invitational at 1 5/8 miles on dirt, the $150,000 Bertram Bongard for New York-bred juvenile colts and geldings on dirt, and the $150,000 Joseph A. Gimma for New York-bred juvenile fillies on dirt.
Supermason, who will run Saturday night at Remington Park, remains a candidate for the $50,000 Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame Stakes on Oct. 29 at Retama, said Calhoun.
Supermason will face a past Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner in Regally Ready in the optional $35,000 claiming route at Remington. Supermason’s final drill for the race came Sept. 21, when he went six furlongs in 1:10.80.
“He worked by himself,” Calhoun said. “It was a pretty amazing work.”
