Kaigun and Twilight Eclipse head a field of eight older horses entered in the $250,000 Elkhorn Stakes, a Grade 2 turf race to be run Saturday at 1 1/2 miles.
From the hedge, this is the Elkhorn lineup: Da Big Hoss, Up With the Birds, A Red Tie Day, Idolo Porteno, Royal Albert Hall, Twilight Eclipse, Kaigun, and St. Albans Boy.
The Elkhorn is the second-to-last of 16 stakes at the Keeneland spring meet. Its sister race, the Grade 3 Bewitch, is the feature for closing day, April 29.
Curalina will make her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 1 La Troienne on the May 6 Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill, Todd Pletcher said Wednesday. It will be the first start for Curalina since she was third behind Stopchargingmaria and Stellar Wind in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last fall.
Pletcher said he gave thought to running in the Doubledogdare on Friday at Keeneland.
“She just needed another work or two, so we started thinking the La Troienne,” Pletcher said. “She ran well at Churchill last year” in an easy Derby Day allowance triumph.
Keen Ice, the only horse to defeat American Pharoah last year, has been sidelined from training for a minimum of 60 days because of a small fracture in his left hind cannon bone, it was announced Tuesday via Twitter by Donegal Racing, the partnership that campaigns the 4-year-old colt.
Keen Ice was transferred earlier this month by Donegal from Dale Romans to Todd Pletcher. The colt has been sent to WinStar Farm to recuperate from the injury, which will not require surgery.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mohaymen, the forgotten horse on the trail to the 142nd Kentucky Derby, gave a reminder that he’s still in the running for the May 7 race when he breezed a half-mile Wednesday at Churchill Downs in a snappy 46.80 seconds.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, who was on hand for the work, told Churchill publicity that Mohaymen accomplished just what was needed in his first breeze since a disappointing fourth-place finish in the April 2 Florida Derby. Mohaymen arrived Sunday from his winter base in Florida.
The Mountaineer Park meet started with a bang on Saturday when Amanda In Front won the first race by a neck and paid $136.20.
If you didn’t bet Amanda In Front, you may have to wait until next year to cash on her. A 5-year-old mare, Amanda In Front is now 4 for 36. She has won one race a year at Mountaineer since 2013.
After the first weekend of racing, Deshawn Parker is atop the rider standings with 12 wins. Nobody else has won more than three races. Parker is nearing his 5,000th career win and through Tuesday had 4,977 victories.
The fifth race at Laurel Park on Friday, a first-level optional sprint for 3-year-olds, matches a pair of promising debut winners, Bobcat and Blu Moon Ace.
Bobcat, trained by Dale Capuano, won a March 19 maiden race by 10 lengths. He was ridden by Jevian Toledo that day but will have Alex Cintron aboard Friday.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Fantastic Style will be favored to win her fourth consecutive start in Saturday’s $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes at Los Alamitos, the richest race of the track’s spring meeting.
Fantastic Style won the Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes for fillies and mares in 2015, when the race was run in July. Los Alamitos does not have a July meeting this year.
Fantastic Style won the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes at Santa Anita last month in her only start this year.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The first race for juveniles in Southern California, a $45,000 maiden special weight race for California-breds at Los Alamitos on Friday, drew five runners from three stables.
Trainers Ed Freeman and Patricia Harrington have two colts each, while Patricia’s husband, Mike, starts the filly Alpenhorn.
Freeman runs Eichel, by Ministers Wild Cat, and I’d Be Sad an Blue, by Square Eddie, and said he is unsure what to expect from the 2-year-olds.
In the 141 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, no jockey has ever won the race in three consecutive years, but Victor Espinoza will get a chance to be the first on May 7 when he pilots Whitmore, a mount he secured on Wednesday as the dominoes fell for riders on four Derby runners.
CYPRESS, Calif. – San Onofre, the winner of the Grade 3 Los Angeles Stakes at Los Alamitos last Saturday, will start in the $200,000 Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita on May 21 in an attempt to win his third graded stakes of 2016, trainer Karen Headley said.
The Grade 2 Kona Gold Stakes, run at 6 1/2 furlongs, has special meaning for Headley. Her father, Bruce, whom she currently assists while also running her own stable, trained Kona Gold, the champion sprinter of 2000 and an 11-time stakes winner.
“I want to win the Kona Gold,” she said. “I wanted to win it last year.”
