ELMONT, N.Y. – American Pharoah, the Triple Crown winner, came out of his stirring Belmont Stakes victory Saturday in excellent condition, traveled back to Churchill Downs on Sunday for a two-week holiday, and will return to his usual base in Southern California before the remainder of his racing career is mapped out, trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday.
“This horse today, for a horse who ran a mile and a half yesterday, looked pretty darn good,” Baffert said.
Golden Gate Fields’s leading apprentice rider David Lopez bruised the left side of his lower back and right ankle in a fall after his mount in the 10th race, Redneck Girl, ducked in sharply shortly after the start of the race.
Lopez was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland for precautionary X-rays.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Protonico, a multiple graded stakes winner, became the latest horse to be impacted by a virus running through trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn and was removed from consideration for next Saturday’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs.
Protonico, 4, had won the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill in his last start and the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland before that.
Cliff Berry’s talent, work ethic, professionalism, and honesty have helped him notch more than 20 riding titles in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas during his 35 years in the saddle. But come December, the 52-year-old journeyman plans to call it a career. Berry presently is riding at Lone Star Park near Dallas, and when the meet ends in July, he will head to his home track of Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
“I’m thinking about retiring after Remington,” Berry said. “That’s what my plan is right now.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Conspicuous by his absence from Saturday’s Grade 1 Manhattan at Belmont Park was Imagining, who was held out of that race to point for the Grade 1 United Nations at Monmouth Park on July 5.
Though Imagining has won several races at Belmont, including the Grade 1 Man o’ War in 2014, trainer Shug McGaughey said the horse is better on turf courses with tighter turns.
“He ran second at Hollywood, he’s run good at Gulfstream, he’s run good at Aqueduct,” McGaughey said. “I also think he likes a little time between his races.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Michael de Kock has been an extremely successful trainer in South Africa and Dubai, and he’s strongly considering opening up a stable in North America in the next few years.
“It could be on the radar,” de Kock said Friday at Belmont Park, where he was to run Mubtaahij in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on Saturday. “We’re looking at it. I enjoy the racing here. I think there’s lot of opportunities at different tracks. There’s turf, there’s dirt, there’s a lot of opportunities for horses.
CYPRESS, Calif. – My Sweet Addiction, the upset winner of the Grade 1 Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita on May 9, worked five furlongs in 1:00 at Los Alamitos on Friday for an expected start next Saturday.
My Sweet Addiction’s next race has not been determined, trainer Marty Jones said. The options are the $100,000 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita or the $200,000 Fleur de Lis Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Churchill Downs.
“We’re deciding between the two,” Jones said.
Far Right, 15th in the Kentucky Derby in his last start, is “all systems go” for the June 20 Ohio Derby, said trainer Ron Moquett. The winner of the Smarty Jones and Southwest stakes at Oaklawn this past winter, Far Right already has breezed three times since the Kentucky Derby.
At least one other Derby also-ran stabled at Churchil Downsl, War Story (16th), also is being pointed to the $500,000 Ohio Derby at ThistleDown.
Work All Week came out of his runner-up finish in the Aristides last weekend at Churchill Downs in good order and will be considered for either of two upcoming stakes, trainer Roger Brueggemann said Friday from the Trackside training center. Those six-furlong races are the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap on June 26 at Prairie Meadows and the Grade 2, $250,000 Smile Sprint on July 5 at Gulfstream Park.
A two-length defeat behind Alsvid in the six-furlong Aristides was the first loss in 11 career races over dirt for Work All Week, the 2014 sprint champion in North America.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – There are a lot of people excited about Urban Achiever arriving at Hastings this weekend. A 2-year-old colt by Idiot Proof, Urban Achiever is the first horse owned by the Hastings Racing Club. Trainer Steve Henson purchased Urban Achiever on behalf of the club for $25,000 out of the Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training May 28 at Del Mar.
