ARCADIA, Calif. – Om is in position to become the first horse to sweep the three late-summer and autumn turf derbies in Southern California when he makes his next start Nov. 28 in the $300,000 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.
Om won the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6 and the Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita on Saturday. The Grade 1 Hollywood Derby is run at 1 1/8 miles on turf, the same distance and surface as the other two races.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Last May, Dortmund was on a losing streak and exhausted. A win in the Santa Anita Derby in April was followed by a third in the Kentucky Derby and a fourth-place finish in the Preakness Stakes.
“He looked like he was overcooked,” trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday.
Dortmund was rested through the summer and returned to racing with a win Saturday in the minor Big Bear Stakes at Santa Anita. The race was a prep for the $500,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 27.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Masochistic had his final workout at Santa Anita on Sunday in advance of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland next Saturday. The two-time stakes winner worked five furlongs in 58.40 seconds without company, the fastest of 50 recorded works at the distance.
“He looked like he did it easily,” trainer Ron Ellis said. “He was relaxed.”
With the final workout completed, Ellis has another prerace objective to achieve: He is banking on an outside post position for Masochistic in the BC Sprint. Post positions will be drawn on Monday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Breeders' Cup Juvenile hopeful Tale of S’avall missed a workout scheduled for Sunday due to some tenderness in his frogs – the bottom part of the foot that acts like a shock absorber – trainer Barclay Tagg said Sunday morning.
Tagg said he still plans to take the horse to Keeneland on Monday with the idea of running in the Juvenile.
"His frogs are a little tender, but he's dead fit," Tagg said. "His last work was very good. Personally, I don't think [missing] this work will make a bit of difference to him."
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Honor Code is coming off a lackluster third-place finish in the Grade 2 Kelso earlier this month, trainer Shug McGaughey said his confidence level is “pretty high” entering next Saturday’s $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland.
“That could have helped him, maybe pushed him forward,” McGaughey said Sunday morning at Belmont Park. “I think that his last three weeks have been the best three weeks I’ve seen him have.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – La Verdad, who won Saturday’s $150,000 Iroquois Stakes at Belmont Park, is expected to ship Monday to Kentucky and run Saturday in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland, trainer Linda Rice said.
“After rating yesterday, I think we should go,” Rice said Sunday morning in her Belmont Park office. “The fact she’s headed to the breeding shed after this, what are we saving her for? What have we got to lose?”
The Keeneland fall meet technically wrapped Saturday, though the Lexington, Ky., track will host its first Breeders’ Cup next week. For statistical purposes, the track officially concluded a 17-day meet with a final day of racing that capped slight declines in handle and attendance, according to initial figures.
KEENELAND
Track: Fast
Weather: Raining
Temp: 62
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The clear skies that prevailed throughout the past week gave way to rain on Saturday morning at Keeneland, the change in weather having a major impact on the training schedules of a handful of prospective Breeders’ Cup starters, including Distaff contenders STOPCHARGINGMARIA and I’M A CHATTERBOX along with likely Sprint favorite PRIVATE ZONE.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The standout 2-year-old in California this year has been Songbird, the unbeaten winner of Grade 1 races for fillies at Del Mar and Santa Anita in September.
While the California-based colt Nyquist is unbeaten in four starts, including three stakes wins, one of his rivals, Swipe, at least finished within three-quarters of a length of him in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes on Sept. 26.
