ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield is finding it a little difficult to move around on Woodbine’s backstretch these days. The Hall of Fame trainer broke his left foot in Florida in early April, and has to use a combination of crutches and a golf cart to keep an eye on his horses during morning training.
“It’s coming along,” Attfield said. “It’s going to be a long process. They said keep off of it for three months, which is a long time for me.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has participated in 12 runnings of the Belmont Stakes, and five times he has run more than one horse in the third leg of the Triple Crown. There’s a strong possibility he’ll run two horses in the 147th Belmont Stakes on June 11.
Destin, the sixth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, is a definite starter for the Belmont. With each passing day from last Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, Stradivari is making his case to run back in the 1 1/2-mile race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A number of key contenders expected to contest next Saturday’s Summit of Speed Preview Day here turned in their final works Thursday and Friday. The eight stakes next Saturday, each valued at $75,000, correspond to the stakes on the Summit of Speed card on July 2.
Fresh off a gutsy victory in the Grade 3 Gallorette on the Preakness undercard at Pimlico, Mizz Money could make her next start against even tougher company in the Grade 1, $700,000 Just a Game on the Belmont Stakes undercard June 11.
Churchill-based trainer Bernie Flint, who co-bred and co-owns Mizz Money with Ron Hillerich, said he is leaning toward the one-mile Just a Game, as opposed to staying home to run the 4-year-old filly in the Grade 3, $100,000 Mint Julep, a 1 1/16-mile turf race here the same day.
Go Maggie Go headed to Acorn
ARCADIA, Calif. – Despite eight more racing cards, handle at California racetracks declined 1.56 percent through the first four months of the year compared to the same point last year, according to statistics announced at Thursday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting.
Those figures included betting at Thoroughbred meetings at Golden Gate Fields, Los Alamitos and Santa Anita, a night harness meeting at Sacramento, and the night Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred meeting at Los Alamitos.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Perhaps it is Illuminant’s turn to win a major turf stakes for fillies and mares in Southern California in Monday’s $300,000 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita.
Since Jan. 1, 2015, 17 different fillies or mares have won graded stakes around two turns on turf at Santa Anita and Del Mar. There have been no two-time winners during that span.
ARCADIA, Calif. – As a 1 1/4-mile race in May, Sunday’s $200,000 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita could be the ideal fit for Royal Albert Hall.
His trainer, Doug O’Neill, has had success with races at that distance this month, having won the Kentucky Derby with Nyquist at 1 1/4 miles at Churchill Downs. Royal Albert Hall is a contender to win his first stakes in the Grade 2 Whittingham on turf.
“Hopefully I can say we went from dirt to turf,” O’Neill said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Steve Asmussen this week confirmed the $200,000 Fleur de Lis Handicap on June 18 at Churchill Downs as the target for Untapable, a 5-year-old mare on the brink of the $4 million earnings mark. Untapable has been on a steady workout schedule at her home track here while gearing up for the Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile race.
Since finishing fourth in the April 15 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park, Untapable has breezed four times at Churchill and figures to have a couple more works leading into the Fleur de Lis.
The Golden Pick 6 jackpot has risen to $998,535 for Friday at Golden Gate Fields.
Multiple bettors picked all six winners on Thursday, with each receiving $312.94.
The Golden Pick 6 has now gone 49 straight days without a payoff, since Feb. 27.
The Golden Pick 6 pays out when only one ticket selects all six winners.
