ELMONT, N.Y. – Ready Dancer, who finished last in the Grade 1 Champagne on Oct. 3, was one of six horses entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Futurity at Belmont Park.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said he “is not committed to run” in the six-furlong Futurity, and that Ready Dancer didn’t handle the sloppy track in the Champagne.
“Twenty yards into the race, you could tell he hated the racetrack,” Pletcher said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher tried to play it conservatively with the filly Tango Time, entering her back in a second-level allowance race – rather than a stakes – off an eye-catching first-level allowance win at Saratoga. But when rain forced the allowance race off the turf Sept. 30, Pletcher was left with little choice.
Thus, Tango Time was one of 13 fillies and mares entered Wednesday to run in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Athenia Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Belmont Park.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – John Kimmel has seen enough of Cavorting for now.
One of Kimmel’s stable stars, Bar of Gold, spent the summer giving futile chase to Cavorting in major races in New York, and now that Cavorting is headed to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, Kimmel is glad to dodge her by sending out Bar of Gold in the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes, the Saturday feature at Keeneland.
“I think Cavorting is the best 3-year-old filly sprinter around, if not the best of any age,” Kimmel said this week from New York.
In the two years since the Maryland Million Turf Sprint was done away with at Laurel Park, trainer King Leatherbury has cross-entered Ben’s Cat in both the Turf and the Sprint, handicapped the races, and then opted for the Turf.
Leatherbury has changed it up for Saturday’s Maryland Million card, which will include seven restricted stakes worth a combined $800,000. On Wednesday morning, Leatherbury said he had only entered Ben’s Cat in the Sprint.
Solow, the France-based gelding who is Europe’s leading miler, is definitely not coming for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but the French still should have a major say in the race.
The 2014 Mile winner, Karakontie, based in France with trainer Jonathan Pease, is on course for another Mile start, and earlier this week, trainer Andre Fabre confirmed that he intends to run the mare Esoterique at Keeneland.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – An outstanding field for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint continued to take further definition with several additions and defections in recent days. Uzzili, Leigh Court, No Fault of Mine, and Flutterby all have bowed out of the seven-furlong Filly and Mare Sprint, while the brilliant 3-year-old Super Majesty and the comebacking Artemis Agrotera are foremost among those newly confirmed.
Early this year, Stellar Wind might have been considered among the early favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Not anymore. Trainer John Sadler will get what he hoped for – a low profile.
“I want to go in under the radar,” Sadler said. “My theory is, sometimes the 3-year-olds peak [in fall]. I want to keep her campaign light so I have a stronger chance next year.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – To watch Bob Baffert train American Pharoah since the Travers has been like watching the high-wire act in the movie “The Walk,” for Baffert has had to know when to back off and when to push in order to get American Pharoah to the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Southern California-based trainers Gary Mandella and his father, Richard Mandella, will have horses at the same Breeders’ Cup for the third time in their careers this month at Keeneland. Gary Mandella, 43, has a leading contender for the $1 million Turf Sprint in No Silent, while Richard Mandella, 64, has one of the top choices in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic in champion Beholder. Both races are Oct. 31.
The Mandellas previously had Breeders’ Cup starters in the same year in 2005 and 2013.
