LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs officials on Tuesday released the stakes schedule for their 2016 spring meet, with the most notable change being the renaming of the former Firecracker Handicap in honor of Wise Dan, the Horse of the Year in 2012 and 2013.
The Wise Dan remains a Grade 2, $200,000 race for 3-year-olds and upward on the turf, with its distance now lengthened from a mile to 1 1/16 miles. It has been moved from closing weekend of the meet to the June 18 Stephen Foster card.
There was no press release when one of the most productive jockey-trainer combinations in Southern California quietly dissolved in late 2015.
Rafael Bejarano has ridden only three horses for Jerry Hollendorfer since November. The last winner for the pair was more than two months ago on Oct. 24. The apparent split is notable at Santa Anita, where Bejarano and Hollendorfer have been the most productive jockey-trainer team over the past three winter meets combined, with 58 wins from 157 starters.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday was an awesome day in the local 3-year-old division, with Awesome Banner cruising to a convincing and popular victory in the Grade 3 Hutcheson Stakes and Awesome Speed doing likewise in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man. However, it appears that neither will come back in the first major 3-year-old race of the meeting, the Grade 2 Holy Bull, later this month.
Tom Amoss will have a 3-year-old in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds – that he knows. But whether that horse is Mo Tom or Harlan Punch won’t be decided until later this week, Amoss said Monday.
Mo Tom, whose close third in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes took on a new shine when the race’s runner-up, Mor Spirit, returned to win the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19, worked five furlongs in a bullet 1:00 on Monday, his strongest workout since he began training at Fair Grounds in December. Mo Tom, Amoss said, worked behind two other horses.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Flexibility, a 4 1/4-length winner of the Grade 3 Jerome Stakes last Saturday, could stay on the New York road to the Kentucky Derby, according to trainer Chad Brown.
The Grade 3, $250,000 Withers on Jan. 30 will be considered for his next start.
“There’s a good possibility we’ll keep going forward with him on the New York trail,” Brown said Monday. “He’ll be considered for the Withers. He seems to be in real good form right now. I’m happy with him where he’s at. I don’t see any reason to move him.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Kendrick Carmouche probably could have started riding in New York earlier than he did. He just wanted to make sure that when he arrived, he was going to succeed.
Judging by the first-year results, Carmouche timed his arrival in New York just right, as he finished 2015 with 110 wins from 807 mounts at New York Racing Association tracks, good enough for eighth place in the standings.
“Did I meet my expectations? I think I went way past them,” Carmouche said Monday. “I always think small before I think big. I think you have better success that way.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – When California Chrome starts in Saturday’s $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita, his first race in more than nine months, he will be 11 weeks from his first major goal of the year, the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 26.
The second principal goal is 10 months away – the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 5. If all goes as planned, California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year after wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, will win both and retire to stud in Kentucky as Horse of the Year.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – The highlights of Wednesday’s nine-race card are Race 2, a first-level optional $75,000 claimer for 3-year-olds at a mile and 40 yards, and Race 6, a third-level optional $62,500 claimer for 4-year-olds and up at seven furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita next Saturday will be the first start for 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome since a second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates last March.
His job was made easier on Sunday when Dortmund and Imperative were taken out of consideration in favor of other races.
