Finnegans Wake will be considered for the $1 million Manhattan Stakes at Belmont Park on June 6 after his thrilling win in Saturday’s $500,000 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.
Finnegans Wake closed from last of nine in the final three-eighths of a mile to win by a head as the 7-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve, the most prestigious victory of his 29-race career.
“That was the only stride he was in front,” trainer Peter Miller said. “He’s a professional racehorse.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – When Catch a Flight won Saturday’s $100,750 Precisionist Stakes at Santa Anita, giving trainer Richard Mandella the 2,000th win of his career, there was no raucous post-race celebration.
“I was in bed by 8 p.m.,” Mandella said.
In fairness to the 64-year-old Mandella, there was a job to do, and other runners that needed attention, on Sunday when training resumed before dawn. Any extensive celebrations can be held if Catch a Flight reaches Mandella’s early summer goal of winning the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 27.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Jockey Antonio Gallardo set a new single-season mark for races won at Tampa Bay Downs when he guided Silver Halo to a neck victory in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile ninth race for $8,000 claiming routers for his 145th victory of the meet.
Gallardo, who dominated the rider standings throughout the meeting, piloted Silver Halo for one of his main backers, trainer Kathleen O’Connell, then had to withstand a claim of foul from Jose A. Garcia aboard the runner-up Abu’s Dream before the record-setting win was declared official.
Tonalist came out of his 3 3/4-length victory in the Westchester Stakes on Saturday well, according to trainer Christophe Clement, and will likely be pointed to the Grade 1 Met Mile on June 6.
Tonalist earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 111 for his Westchester victory. He covered the one-turn mile in 1:34.07 despite lagging back in last place early for the first five furlongs.
“Everything is well with Tonalist,” Clement said. “He came out of the race in good order, and I will talk to owner Robert Evans, but the Met Mile will likely be next. It’s exciting.”
While trainer Bob Baffert landed the big prize, taking the Kentucky Derby with American Pharoah, he came away empty-handed with five other graded stakes starters on the weekend at Churchill Downs. The most disappointing performance belonged to 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Bayern, who was never a factor while finishing last of six in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes in his season debut.
On Sunday morning, Baffert reported that Bayern emerged from the poor effort, in which he was 11 3/4 lengths behind victorious Private Zone, in good order.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – International Star has been scratched from the 141st Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, it was announced shortly after 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Saturday. His defection leaves a field of 18.
Chief steward Barbara Borden said the scratch for International Star was submitted by trainer Mike Maker and the colt was not scratched by a state veterinarian. Maker said the colt began showing soreness in his left front foot about 9 a.m. and that withdrawing the colt was the prudent move. Maker said the injury is not serious and “we’ll live to fight another day.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – El Kabeir made it through the harsh New York winter to get to Churchill Downs, but he won’t make the starting gate for Saturday’s 141st Kentucky Derby.
Due to a bruise of his left front foot – the extent of which is not yet completely known – El Kabeir was officially scratched Friday afternoon from Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
Diva’s Diamond has been put on a Prairie Meadows program following her runner-up finish to champion Untapable in last month’s Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap. Karl Broberg, the leading trainer at Lone Star Park, said Friday that Diva’s Diamond has a summer objective of defending her title in the $100,000 Iowa Distaff. The 1 1/16-mile race will be contested June 26.
“We’ve taken her to Iowa to run her back in the stakes that she won last year, and hopefully, there will be a prep race for her before that one,” Broberg said. “She’s doing really good right now.”
Two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan began a light routine of jogging on the track earlier this week, with an eye toward stepping up his training in about a month.
Wise Dan jogged a lap on Keeneland’s synthetic training track, accompanied by a pony, on April 25. It was the first trip to the track for the 8-year-old gelding Wise Dan since he was sidelined with a non-displaced fracture at the bottom of his right front cannon bone in his right front fetlock last October. He has been tack-walking at trainer Charlie LoPresti’s Keeneland base since early March.
AUBURN, Wash. – Robert Geller, Emerald Downs’s longtime track announcer, said he will leave his post in early June to become the race-caller at a higher-profile track that he declined to name.
Geller, 55, has called races at Emerald since the facility opened in 1996. He previously was an announcer in his native Australia and in Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Jockey Club. In addition to Emerald Downs, Geller serves as the announcer for the winter meeting at Sunland Park.
