LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Limousine Liberal will be trying to rebound off a sixth-place finish on Kentucky Derby Day when he returns Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Aristides at Churchill.
Trained by Ben Colebrook for K.K. Ball, Limousine Liberal led for a half-mile and faded to be beaten four lengths by winner Catalina Red as the 9-2 fourth choice in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs on May 7. He was coming off a 4 1/2-length victory in an allowance at Keeneland on April 9.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Officials at Ellis Park announced this week that purses at the track’s summer meet will average $210,000 per day and will be supplemented by a $1.35 million contribution from sister track Kentucky Downs. Ellis also has reinstituted the $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile, last run in 2008, as part of its annual showcase program, led by the $100,000 Groupie Doll Stakes on Aug. 6.
“I’m incredibly pumped about our upcoming meet,” Ellis racing secretary Dan Bork said in a media release. “It will be outstanding.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Horses winning off long layoffs are not particularly rare. But when a 5-year-old mare named First Daughter ended the Monday program at Churchill Downs with an 11-1 surprise after more than 2 1/2 years off, well, that was taking the concept to an extreme.
“It was a while,” said Doug Matthews, the Chicago-based trainer of First Daughter.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Preakness winner Exaggerator got a bit more serious about his training for the June 11 Belmont Stakes with a strong gallop over the main track Tuesday morning that saw him go his last half-mile in 56.50 seconds.
He went better than a two-minute clip – 15 seconds per eighth-mile – from the three-eighths pole to the 1 3/8-miles pole on a warm, humid morning on Long Island.
Julie Clark, assistant to trainer Keith Desormeaux, said Tuesday’s exercise was designed to put “air in his lungs and stretch him out.”
With Johnny Reb posting a 42.80 upset in Monday’s final race, three bettors cashed consolation tickets after selecting all six winners in Golden Gate Fields’ Golden Pick 6 jackpot wager.
The three bettors who picked all six winners were each rewarded with $33,726.66 payoffs, but the wager will resume Friday with a $1,137,828 pool.
Had 45-to-1 shot Peppered Pro won Monday’s final race instead of finishing sixth, it would have triggered a $1,230,919 jackpot payoff for the 20-cent bet. The Golden Pick 6 jackpot payoff occurs only when there is one winning ticket.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Danny Pish won the 2,000th Thoroughbred race of his career on Monday, when U S Officer won his debut in the second race at Lone Star Park.
Pish’s first winner came in 1995, at Gillespie County Fair in Fredericksburg, Texas. He has had 11,831 Thoroughbred starters and those horses have earned more than $28 million, according to Daily Racing Form records.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Frosted, fifth in the Dubai World Cup in March, continues to impress trainer Kiaran McLaughlin as he works toward an expected start in the $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 11.
Last Friday, Frosted worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 clockwise – the opposite direction that races are run – over the Greentree training facility at Saratoga. It was his fourth workout this month.
“He’s come back, trained great, looks fantastic,” McLaughlin said. “No issues whatsoever.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Rudy Rodriguez began serving a 15-day suspension on Wednesday for a medication violation that occurred nearly a year ago in New Jersey.
According to a ruling on the New Jersey Racing Commission website, the Rodriguez-trained Coach Germ, who finished eighth in the 12th race last June 20 at Monmouth Park, exceeded the permitted plasma threshold of the medication phenylbutazone. Coach Germ had 4.5 micrograms per milliliter, and the permissible level is 2.0 micrograms per milliliter.
Rodriguez was also fined $500.
ELMONT, N.Y. – For as well as Highland Sky has already run in his career, his pedigree – and his connections – say he should get better with more distance.
Highland Sky will get his first chance to run 1 1/8 miles when he heads a 10-horse field entered for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Pennine Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park. The Pennine Ridge is the local prep for the $1.25 million Belmont Derby at 1 1/4 miles on July 9.
