Beholder, the three-time champion, was pronounced “ready” for her 2016 debut next month after a seven-furlong workout in 1:25 at Santa Anita on Thursday.
Beholder is scheduled to have her first start of the year in the $100,000 Adoration Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on May 8.
“We’re ready to go,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “She’ll get another long work and doesn’t need to do too much at this point.”
CYPRESS, Calif. – The lure of a seven-figure, Grade 1 race and the absence of the undefeated champion Songbird have put Mokat on course for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 6.
Earlier this month, Mokat was made eligible for the $1 million Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies with a late nomination payment of $1,500. The fee was paid days after Mokat finished second to Songbird in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on April 9. Last weekend, Songbird was declared from the Kentucky Oaks because of illness.
MIAMI - Florida Derby runner-up Majesto will bid south Florida adieu and head on to Churchill Downs after breezing a mile in 1:44.41 on a warm and muggy Thursday morning at Gulfstream Park West.
With regular exercise rider J.J. Delgado aboard, Majesto broke off at the six-furlong pole, posted splits of 26.07, 50.62 and 1:15.98 to the wire, then continued around the clubhouse turn in what looked more like a gallop-out to complete the mile where he began at the top of the backstretch. He was under just light urging from the eighth pole to the finish line.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The defection of heavily favored Songbird from the $1 million Kentucky Oaks has swayed the connections of other 3-year-old fillies to reconsider their prior decisions to withdraw their horses from the race.
Cathryn Sophia is the most prominent of the fillies who will now point to the May 6 filly classic at Churchill Downs. After finishing third in the April 9 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, Cathryn Sophia was being diverted by trainer John Servis to the Grade 2, $200,000 Eight Belles, a seven-furlong race on the Oaks undercard.
A full field of 10, plus one also-eligible, has been entered for the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic on Saturday. There are six stakes on the Classic undercard.
Donworth, trained by Doug O’Neill, is expected to rule a slight favorite in the $1.25 million Classic from post 4. But the Todd Pletcher-trained Stanford (post 7) and Page McKenney (post 9), a winner of five of his last six starts for trainer Mary Eppler, also are sure to take money.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Highland Sky, the runner-up in the Cutler Bay Stakes here in his seasonal debut, and Unbridled Daddy, a sharp allowance winner in his seasonal debut, top a field of nine 3-year-olds entered for Saturday’s $100,000 Woodhaven Stakes at a mile on the turf.
Highland Sky, trained by Barclay Tagg, finished sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall, beaten just 4 1/2 lengths. Unbridled Daddy was third to stablemate Azar in the With Anticipation at Saratoga last summer before running 10th in the Grade 3 Bourbon over yielding turf.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Through the first 110 days of 2016, Jose Ortiz leads the nation in races won (112) and purse money won ($5,260,264), and he’s on an incredible run at the Aqueduct spring meet.
But that wasn’t enough to secure a contending Kentucky Derby mount.
Instead, Ortiz will remain in New York for both Oaks and Derby days and likely will ride a bevy of live runners at Belmont Park on those two days.
Last year, Joe Bravo won five races on Derby Day at Belmont Park, including all three stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Effinex returned to New York a few days after he won the Oaklawn Park Handicap last Saturday, but he likely will hit the road again for his next start.
Effinex is targeting the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap on June 18 at Churchill Downs, according to Russell Cohen, who manages the horse for his mother Bernice’s Tri-Bone Stable.
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.
