CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome worked a half-mile in 49.80 seconds at Los Alamitos early Saturday, his second workout since his historic win in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 26.
The workout kept California Chrome on schedule for his summer debut in the $200,000 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 23, a prep race for the $1 million Pacific Classic there on Aug. 20.
Bret Calhoun is nearing 250 career stakes wins as a trainer, and horses like Ibaka, his most recent stakes winner with a score Tuesday at Will Rogers Downs, and Supermason, who just set a course record at Lone Star Park, figure to continue to fuel the success he has had in the Mid-South region that includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
But the stakes count for Calhoun, who was at 246 through Thursday, has also been built in locales like Kentucky, where he won a pair of Breeders’ Cup races in 2010.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Larry Weinbaum, a retired sportswriter and handicapper for several Southern California newspapers, died on Wednesday after a lengthy illness related to complications of a stroke, according to a close friend, the public handicapper Bob Ike.
Weinbaum was 64.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ebadan made a splashy U.S. debut on Thursday, using a late rally to win an optional claimer on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita.
Ebadan ($26.80) closed from more than eight lengths off the pace under jockey Flavien Prat to win by a nose over Zinvor. Trainer Neil Drysdale said he is planning to start Ebadan in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf at Del Mar on July 15.
“I thought he really turned the gas on,” Drysdale said of Ebadan’s rally. “That was very educational.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sensitively extended her winning streak to three races with an easy win in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on Thursday, leaving trainer Phil D’Amato dreaming of November.
“I wish the Breeders’ Cup was next month,” he said.
D’Amato and owners Antony Fanticola and Joe Scardino have the BC Filly and Mare Sprint here on Nov. 5 as a long-term goal for Sensitively, who has yet to win a stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Second Summer had a quiet 3-year-old season in 2015, winning once in six starts while racing primarily on turf. This year, a move to dirt races has revitalized Second Summer’s career and led to a start in Sunday’s $200,000 Californian Stakes at Santa Anita.
As had been hoped for more than a year, the 2-year-old colt Star Empire ran his way to a start at Royal Ascot when he won his debut in Thursday’s first race at Belmont Park by 6 1/2 lengths.
Wesley Ward trains Star Empire for owner Belinda Bateman of Australia, and Star Empire is penciled in for a start in the Coventry Stakes next month at Ascot.
Star Empire pressed the pace two wide, took over with more than a quarter-mile to run, and wasn’t threatened to the finish, his five-furlong time of 58.44 seconds producing a 61 Beyer Speed Figure.
LOUISVILLE, Ky . - It’s still nearly a month until the $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap is run on a multistakes card June 18, but the Grade 1 race already has a clear-cut favorite: Effinex, who has resumed a regular work schedule at Belmont Park after winning the Oaklawn Handicap in his last start April 16.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The 157th running of the $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine is now six weeks away, and a number of top contenders are beginning to emerge. A total of 88 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds were nominated to the Canadian Triple Crown in February, but that number has been whittled down to 39 who remain eligible after the second subscription deadline on May 4.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Lost amid all the Triple Crown hoopla in recent weeks was this behind-the-scenes development at Churchill Downs: Keith Bourgeois is here for the first time.
Bourgeois has been a perennial leading trainer in his home state of Louisiana for nearly 20 years, but with his third and youngest child having graduated high school this week back home in Lafayette, he decided a change in scenery wouldn’t hurt.
