CYPRESS, Calif. - Jockey Fernando Perez will resume riding at Los Alamitos on Thursday, 11 days after he was unseated from his mount following a race at Santa Anita on April 10.
Perez was unseated from Cardiac after the San Juan Capistrano Stakes while galloping the 4-year-old back to be unsaddled. Perez initially had X-rays taken on a knee on the evening of the race, and later experienced dizziness that led one doctor to conclude the rider may have sustained a concussion in the fall.
Cupid, who finished 10th in Saturday’s $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park as the 4-5 favorite, will be sent from Arkansas to Kentucky in coming days while trainer Bob Baffert contemplates the colt’s next race.
Baffert, who watched the race from his home in Southern California, said on Sunday that he not decided whether Cupid will start in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 7.
“He’s waiting to go to Kentucky,” he said. “We’re on a wait-and-see basis. We’ll give him a week to chill.
“He just didn’t run. He didn’t fire.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Creator, Suddenbreakingnews, and Whitmore, the first three finishers in the Arkansas Derby here at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, all emerged from the race in good order and, with sufficient points for all safely tucked away, will take up three of the 20 spots in the Kentucky Derby field at Churchill Downs on May 7.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Forever Unbridled, who won the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap on Friday, emerged from the race in "excellent" condition, trainer Dallas Stewart said Saturday.
"She has that bright look in her eye," he said.
Stewart said Forever Unbridled will ship Sunday to Churchill Downs. He said the track's upcoming race for her division, the Grade 1, $300,000 La Troienne on May 6, comes up too quickly for Forever Unbridled. In the Apple Blossom, she was making her first start since winning the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 30.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tampa Bay Derby winner Destin, who will go into the Kentucky Derby without a race in eight weeks, continues to progress nicely toward that goal after working five furlongs in 1:00.89 over a "good" racetrack at Palm Beach Downs on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Thirteen Arrows, a two-time stakes winner who recently joined trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s Southern California stable, will have her first start on the West Coast in the $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes at Los Alamitos on April 23.
The Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes is run at 6 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares and is the top race of the Los Alamitos spring meeting that runs through May 1.
On Saturday at Los Alamitos, Thirteen Arrows worked five furlongs in 1:00.60.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kobe’s Back, the dominant sprinter in Southern California this year, worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Saturday, moving closer to a scheduled start in the $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes in Kentucky on May 7.
Kobe’s Back was ridden by jockey Iggy Puglisi, who was substituting for Gary Stevens, who was booked to ride at Keeneland on Saturday.
Puglisi never asked Kobe’s Back, riding the 5-year-old horse steadily in a solo exercise. Trainer Peter Eurton timed Kobe’s Back in 1:00.20, with a six-furlong gallop-out time of 1:13.20.
As more Kentucky Derby and Oaks hopefuls continue to arrive at Churchill Downs in Louisville, track officials have announced that the training time reserved exclusively for those horses will become effective next Saturday, April 23.
The period typically starts at around 8:30 a.m., after the track is freshly harrowed, and lasts about 20 minutes. Trainers are requested to use the yellow (Derby) and pink (Oaks) saddle towels that make their horses more easily identifiable to the public.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Nick Zito had just sent a horse out for work at Keeneland early Friday when Nyquist started into his first breeze since his Florida Derby triumph.
“I was very impressed. I thought he worked at least a mile,” Zito said, referring to the official clocking of five furlongs in 1:02.60. “I’m watching close, and the horse is really into it before the wire the first time. He came all the way around and had every right to chuck it and didn’t chuck it at all. He’s a good horse.”
CYPRESS, Calif.– Jockey Rafael Bejarano, who led the standings at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that ended April 10, recently dropped an appeal of a three-day suspension from February.
Bejarano, 33, will be suspended for three racing days – Sunday, Thursday, and Friday. There are no designated races exempt from suspension during that time frame in California, meaning Bejarano will not be in action. Designated races are typically graded stakes that are exempt from routine suspensions.
