LEXINGTON, Ky. – Less than two weeks after winning the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, the 3-year-old filly Her Emmynency has been taken from trainer Mike Stidham by owner Ike Thrash and sent to Southern California.
Her Emmynency, who won the $500,000 QE II on Oct. 10 as a 17-1 shot, is among 10 horses being sent to trainer Kristin Mulhall at Santa Anita.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – This past Wednesday, upon the official release of the Breeders’ Cup pre-entries, eager handicappers and horsemen began analyzing past performances and other statistics in preparation for the two-day Breeders’ Cup.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’s a seasonal and sunny mid-October day at Keeneland Racecourse, and Bob Elliston, chief operating officer of the Breeders’ Cup, is leaning on the rail of a newly built viewing platform on a grassy area outside the track’s final turn. As if appearing out of thin air, seven horses glide by, nearly noiseless, hugging the inside rail. Keeneland’s grandstand, a good quarter-mile in the distance, is too far away to hear a thing, even though a decent Wednesday crowd is jammed on the apron and anxiously waiting for the horses in the first race to gear up for the final drive.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. sent a division of horses to Oaklawn last year, and he said he plans to return to the Hot Springs, Ark., track for the meet that opens in January. Stall is hoping to have a 10- to 12-horse division on the grounds, with horses for such clients as Arkansas resident Frank Fletcher, whose runners often have the word “Rocket” in their names as a tribute to his beloved dog Rocket. “We’ll have some Rockets in our pocket for Frank,” said Stall, among them the stakes winner Rocket Time.
Hal Wiggins, who trained Rachel Alexandra through her dominating win in the Kentucky Oaks, is set to start his second season as a Fair Grounds steward next month. Wiggins, who is retired from training, had gone through a stewards training program in Louisville, Ky., in 2007, before Rachel Alexandra.
“I served as a steward last year. That was my first year, and I really enjoyed it,” Wiggins said. “Fortunately, they asked me to come back.”
Wiggins said an opening became available when steward Dave Hooper went to Canterbury.
Trainer C.R. Trout shipped Maysville Slew to Churchill Downs for the Clark Handicap back in 2000, and the horse ran one of the best races of his career, finishing third to Surfside and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 107.
Trout has since waited for the right horse to take another shot at the Clark, and he believes he has found him in Shotgun Kowboy. The winner of the Grade 3, $424,000 Oklahoma Derby in September added another stakes win to his résumé last week when he defeated older horses in the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup at his base of Remington Park.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Just like the weather, things are beginning to heat up during training hours at Keeneland with the Breeders’ Cup now just about a week away.
The temperature was approaching 60 degrees when the main track opened for business at 5:30 a.m. Thursday, and it was a half-hour later when trainer Todd Pletcher sent out the first of his five Breeders’ Cup workers. As they have been for the past week, the skies were clear and the track fast, perhaps even a bit on the glib side, as training on the turf course remained closed for Breeders’ Cup workers until Sunday.
Beholder walked the shed row under tack Wednesday and was to return to the track the following morning, as trainer Richard Mandella reiterated that the champion's elevated temperature after arriving in Kentucky was due to shipping stress.
Beholder, who had additional blood work done and lung scans taken Wednesday, was able to walk the shed row during the afternoon under exercise rider Janeen Painter. She will return to the track to gallop Thursday as she begins final preparations for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Monmouth Park will open its second New Jersey offtrack betting parlor Friday in Hillsborough.
Named “Favorites in Hillsborough,” the OTB will have 60 carrels for players to sit and handicap and “dozens” of high-definition flat-screen TVs. McLoone’s Clubhouse Pub will offer a full menu.
The Hillsborough OTB will be open seven days a week at 11 a.m.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Horse Racing Commission security personnel last Friday searched the Keeneland and Trackside stables of trainer Joe Sharp, according to chief steward Barbara Borden. The search found nothing improper, said Borden.
