ELMONT, N.Y. – Hit It Once More, a winner of two stakes restricted to New York-breds this summer, worked a sharp five furlongs in 59.72 seconds Sunday over the Belmont Park main track in preparation for the Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 24.
Under regular jockey Kendrick Carmouche, Hit It Once More got his final quarter in 24.57 seconds and then galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.31, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch.
FRANKLIN, Ky. – Everybody likes a plan to come together. And for Mike Maker, boy, his plan for the Kentucky Downs meet has come together nicely.
With Florent Geroux riding most of his stock, Maker has come close to maxing out at the five-day meet that ends Thursday. The 47-year-old trainer has won four stakes – remarkably, all with horses he claimed for various clients – and his meet earnings are nearly $1.3 million.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Drefong, who has emerged as a leading 3-year-old sprinter in recent months, worked three furlongs in 37.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Sunday, his first workout since a win in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 27.
Drefong, trained by Bob Baffert for Charles Chu, is a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5. Baffert said on Sunday that he will decide in the next week whether Drefong will have a race prior to the BC Sprint.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Hard Aces, who won the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar in July, but was only eighth in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 20, is being pointed to the $200,000 Marathon Stakes at 1 3/4 miles at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
Where Hard Aces starts in the interim is unclear, trainer John Sadler said over the weekend.
“I’ve got to figure out a way to get him to the Marathon,” he said. “I’d like to race him once before then. It could be the Awesome Again.”
CYPRESS, Calif. - Soi Phet is on the verge of a well-earned winter vacation.
After winning his third stakes in his last four starts in Saturday’s $75,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes for California-bred milers at Los Alamitos, trainer Leonard Powell said Soi Phet is likely to have one start at the Santa Anita autumn meeting before being turned out. The reason is simple: Soi Phet is not a wintertime horse.
“He never runs well in the winter and we can bring him back in the spring,” Powell said. “He’ll tell me.”
CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome is midway between starts in late summer and early fall.
The 2014 Horse of the Year, California Chrome won the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 20 and will have his next start in the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1. The main goal in the coming months is the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
On Saturday at Los Alamitos, where trainer Art Sherman is based, California Chrome had a slick five-furlong workout in 1:00.80, finishing without urging from exercise rider Dihigi Gladney.
ELMONT, N.Y. – One week after his stablemate Shaman Ghost won the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, Effinex gave a not-so-subtle reminder that trainer Jimmy Jerkens has two top-caliber horses in the older male division in his barn.
Effinex, a Grade 1 winner and two-time winner of the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap, blazed five furlongs in 59.32 seconds over the Belmont Park main track Saturday in preparation for the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup here on Oct. 8. That race is also the intended target for Shaman Ghost.
Classic Empire, the favorite in the Grade 1 Hopeful who veered out at the break and unseated jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., will be pointed to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 8, trainer Mark Casse said Friday.
Casse said that Classic Empire may have spotted the auxiliary starting gate that, for some reason, is parked alongside the outside fence on the main track.
Casse said Classic Empire went back to the track Tuesday and has been training in blinkers, equipment that he will wear for the first time in a race in the Futurity.
Tommy Macho, last year’s Discovery Handicap winner, worked four furlongs in 49.47 seconds Friday over Belmont’s main track. It was his fifth work since resuming training following surgery earlier this year to remove a knee chip.
Tommy Macho has not run since winning the Fred Hooper Stakes at Gulfstream on Feb. 6.
“He had a knee surgery after that. He’s come back and rehabbed well and trained well so far,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “We have no specific plans for his next start, but he’s coming along well so far.”
