Bendable is bound for the $250,000 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 22 after winning her stakes debut in the $75,000 Beverly Lewis Stakes at Los Alamitos last Sunday.
The Raven Run field will not include Enola Gray, who lost for the first time when second in the Lewis Stakes. Enola Gray will stay in California for a three-race campaign through the end of the year, said trainer Phil D’Amato.
Union Strike, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 3 in her stakes debut, will not start in the $300,000 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1, but remains an intended starter for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 5, owner Mick Ruis said on Wednesday.
Ruis said Union Strike had “a little bit of shins” before the Debutante, but has recovered since the seven-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies. She has been jogging in recent days, and was scheduled to begin galloping on Thursday at Santa Anita.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Back-to-back allowances are the nominal features on the Friday opener, although it’s quite possible the horses with the greatest upside are in an earlier race.
Untapped, a full sister to 2014 Kentucky Oaks winner Untapable (by Tapit out of Fun House, by Prized), will make her debut in the sixth race, a $43,000 one-mile maiden race that has a number of 2-year-old fillies with attractive pedigrees.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With 2-year-olds, there’s always hope. That’s one reason Dale Romans is so high on Not This Time – not to mention the trainer’s natural inclination to give his horses a great benefit of doubt.
“He might be one of the best I’ve ever hard,” Romans said. “He’s got all the makings.”
Not This Time, a 10-length winner of an Aug. 12 maiden race at Ellis Park, will be among the favorites when he starts from the outside post in a field of eight in the Grade 3, $150,000 Iroquois Stakes, one of four stakes on a terrific Saturday card at Churchill Downs.
Sam Houston Race Park will run its richest race, the Grade 3, $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic, on Sunday, Jan. 29. The race, previously a Saturday night feature, will again share a card with the Grade 3 John Connally Turf Cup, which has been boosted in value by $50,000 to $250,000. Post for the card will be noon Central.
The changes are the most significant to Sam Houston’s stakes schedule, which was released Tuesday. The package of 20 stakes will be worth nearly $2 million. Sam Houston opens its 32-date meet Jan. 20.
Madam Dancealot, a Group 3 winner at Salisbury Racecourse in England on Sept. 1, was purchased for approximately $291,000 at the Goffs Champion Sale in Ireland last weekend and will join trainer Richard Baltas’s stable in California later this month.
Madam Dancealot will be pointed for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4, according to David Meah, an assistant to Baltas who helped to organize the purchase.
Melatonin, a winner of two Grade 1 races in the first half of the year, may run out of time to prepare for the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1, trainer David Hofmans said.
Hofmans said he may start Melatonin in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 after a series of workouts in the coming weeks.
“I don’t know if we’ll make the Awesome Again,” he said. “The other option is to go in off works.”
The undefeated champion Songbird breezed five furlongs in 58.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Monday, a workout trainer Jerry Hollendorfer described as her most important exercise in the buildup to the $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing on Sept. 24.
Hollendorfer did not attend the workout. He was in Kentucky for the Keeneland September yearling sale and was in contact with stable staff in California through the morning.
“We had a nice workout,” Hollendorfer said. “That’s our major work before going to Philadelphia.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Breaking Lucky returned to Woodbine last week after his close fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga on Sept. 3 and will be pointed toward the Grade 3, $150,000 Durham Cup over 1 1/8 miles on Tapeta here on Sept. 24, trainer Reade Baker said.
“If everything’s 100 percent, we’ll run him here in the Durham,” he said.
Baker said Breaking Lucky returned to Woodbine in good order after earning a career-best 105 Beyer Speed Figure in the Woodward, but the short turnaround is a concern.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield looks to have a busy weekend ahead for his stable, as he’ll be represented in at least three of the five graded turf stakes here.
Along with Tower of Texas in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile, Attfield will send out Danish Dynaformer and potentially Goodyearforroses in Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes. Danish Dynaformer will enter off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Arlington Million over 1 1/4 miles at Arlington Park on Aug. 13.
