ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Catherine Day Phillips came close to recording her second stakes win of the meet Saturday, when Neshama was nosed out by Trini Brewnette in the $125,400 South Ocean Stakes, but she’ll have at least one more stakes starter before the end of the season, as Aye Aye Captain is on track for the $125,000 Kingarvie Stakes on Nov. 29.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard claimed Calgary Cat for owners Stephen Chesney and Cory Hoffman in November 2013 and helped him become a graded stakes winner and Canadian champion male sprinter the following season. Attard will have the chance to turn another former claimer into a graded stakes winner with Melmich in the Grade 3, $150,000 Valedictory Stakes at 1 3/4 miles on Nov. 29.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – More than four years after he won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill, Regally Ready once again showed his fondness for the local course when the 8-year-old gelding dominated the Sunday feature.
Regally Ready led every step of the one-mile allowance, winning by five lengths and increasing his career bankroll to $1,739,481 from 43 starts.
“He’s just such a cool, cool horse,” said trainer Steve Asmussen.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Nov. 26 Falls City and a Nov. 28 Stars of Tomorrow card sandwich the Nov. 27 Clark Handicap, a Grade 1 race that is shaping up with an excellent field.
Prospects for the $500,000 Clark include Dortmund and Hoppertunity for Bob Baffert; Race Day and Protonico for Todd Pletcher; Effinex and Keen Ice, the second- and fourth-place finishers behind American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic; Frivolous, a 5-year-old mare in her final career start; and Mr. Z, trained by D. Wayne Lukas.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Stars of Tomorrow cards aren’t necessarily the only ones that produce exciting 2-year-olds at the Churchill Downs fall meet. A good horse is eligible to spring forth from just about any 2-year-old race at Churchill – such as an allowance held as the second race last Saturday.
Synchrony, a Pin Oak Stable homebred colt, won for the second straight time and stamped himself as a top prospect for the major 3-year-old stakes this winter at Oaklawn Park.
“We think he’s got a real future,” said trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel.
Big Macher was a stakes winner at Del Mar's fall meet one year ago, and he is expected to defend his title, on Sunday, in the $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes for California-bred sprinters going six furlongs.
Big Macher won the Pirate’s Bounty, under similar conditions, on closing day of the summer meeting Sept. 7 in his first start since finishing fifth in the Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan. In his lone start since the Pirate’s Bounty, he was 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Instead of going on a honeymoon the day after getting married, jockey Joe Talamo is going to work.
Talamo and Elizabeth Ellis, daughter of trainer Ron Ellis, are getting married on Friday night in San Diego. On Saturday, Talamo will head right back to work at Del Mar aboard Three Hearts, who will defend her title in the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf.
The Washington Horse Racing Commission on Friday approved a 70-day racing season for 2016 at Emerald Downs. The meet will run from April 9-Sept. 11.
Racing will be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays for the first two weekends, with Friday night racing added to the schedule beginning April 22. There also will be racing on the Mondays of Memorial Day and Labor Day as well as on Monday, June 20, when Emerald will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a night card.
California Chrome recorded his first published work, but his second work since going back into training, with an easy three furlongs in 39.60 seconds early Saturday morning at Los Alamitos.
California Chrome worked two furlongs the previous Saturday, but that is a distance too short to make the official work tab. This work did make the tab, according to Russell Hudak, the head clocker at Los Alamitos, who timed California Chrome beginning at the quarter pole.
The eighth race Friday night at Delta Downs was declared a no-contest after the starting gate wasn’t pulled from the track before the horses hit the stretch in the two-turn optional claimer. There was a malfunction with the gate, the track announced, but crews were able to move it into the infield just as the horses were approaching it.
