The fourth race at Parx on Monday was a typical $15,000 restricted claiming race until upper stretch, at which point jockey Angel Castillo appeared to lose his whip and then either take or be handed the whip of Pierre Hernandez-Ortega, with whom he was racing in tight quarters.
Castillo went on to hit his mount 16 times with the whip after the incident and was up to finish second in the 1 1/16-mile race. Hernandez-Ortega’s mount, Distant Thoughts, tired to finish sixth.
The field for the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby was beginning to take shape on Monday, with Tale of Verve and Souper Colossal part of a large group anticipated for the 1 1/8-mile race this Sunday. The Oklahoma Derby is the highlight of the Remington Park meet and will anchor a card of seven stakes worth more than $1 million. Entries for the program will be taken on Thursday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After initially saying she didn’t think Palace could make Saturday’s Grade 1 Vosburgh, trainer Linda Rice has reversed course and now believes her Grade 1-winning sprinter will be ready for the six-furlong stepping-stone to the Breeders’ Cup.
Palace, who suffered a significant foot injury when he stumbled at the start of the John Morrissey Stakes on July 30, worked five furlongs in 59.85 seconds Sunday over Belmont’s training track.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher had several options for Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame Stakes but elected to go with the 3-year-old filly Curalina in the 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares.
Curalina won the Grade 1 Acorn over this track in June and then was elevated to first in the Coaching Club American Oaks after getting bumped by I’m a Chatterbox nearing the wire. Curalina finished third behind Embellish the Lace and I’m a Chatterbox in the Grade 1 Alabama.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Dame Dorothy won seven of her first nine races and hadn’t finished worse than third in her two losses. Sent off as the 7-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 29 at Saratoga, Dame Dorothy was a no-show, finishing sixth behind Unbridled Forever.
Still not sure what went wrong, trainer Todd Pletcher has decided to forge on with the Bobby Flay-owned 4-year-old filly, and she will run in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There will be five graded stakes run at Belmont Park on Saturday, and it’s not far-fetched to think trainer Todd Pletcher could have the first or second choice in all of them.
Already well armed with Rock Fall in the Grade 1, $400,000 Vosburgh and Curalina in the Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame, Pletcher has decided to run Red Rifle in the Grade 1, $600,000 Joe Hirsch and Dame Dorothy in the Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom. Pletcher will run Azar and possibly Dissident in the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The biggest day of the Santa Anita fall meeting will be the first day. On Saturday, five Grade 1 stakes, all worth $300,000 and all of them Win and You’re In races toward the Breeders’ Cup, will be run on an 11-race, opening-day card. In advance of that blockbuster card, a number of top-class horses had their final works Monday, including the circuit’s top 2-year-old filly, Songbird, who is set for the Chandelier Stakes, which will mark her first try around two turns.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Pomodoro, a 2-year-old Godolphin Racing homebred filly by Medaglia d’Oro, was euthanized Sunday evening after breaking down in her right foreleg in the eighth race at Churchill. Jockey Florent Geroux was not injured, nor were any other horses or jockeys.
Chief steward Barbara Borden said veterinary staff tried to save the filly’s life, but the injury was too severe. Pomodoro was making her third career start when Geroux pulled her up entering the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile maiden race on the turf.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Monday from California that he was thrilled with the 1 3/4-length victory by Super Majesty in the Grade 3 Dogwood Stakes on Saturday night at Churchill Downs and that he was unsure whether to forge ahead to the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ralph Nicks arrived back in south Florida around lunchtime on Sunday after having attended the Keeneland yearling sale for the past week. By the time he got to dinner that night, Nicks had added five more victories to his already impressive record here this summer, a feat even he found a bit hard to believe.
“Did it really happen?” Nicks said on Monday. “That’s what I was saying last night.”
