The first Maryland turf races of the season will be held at Pimlico on Thursday, weather permitting. Turf racing had been scheduled to start last Thursday but was pushed back a week due to the late arrival of spring.
Races 4, 5, 7, and 8 are scheduled to be run on the grass. Race 4 has 10 entrants, race 5 has 11, race 7 has 13, and race 8 has 10. This is a welcome relief as field size has dwindled in recent weeks as the pool of local dirt runners has been depleted.
The field for the April 18 Charles Town Classic is coming together, with Shared Belief a heavy favorite in a short field. On Tuesday, Bob Baffert confirmed that he will not be sending Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Bayern.
“The race was never on my radar,” Baffert said.
Bayern was slowed by a quarter crack early this year but has had six works since March 14, including a bullet seven-furlong drill in 1:23.60 at Santa Anita on Tuesday.
Last season’s Arlington Million winner, Hardest Core, is on target to make his 5-year-old debut in the Grade 1 Man o’ War at Belmont Park on May 9, according to trainer Eddie Graham.
Hardest Core is based at the Runnymede Farm of his majority owners, Gregory, Caroline, and Andrew Bentley, in the beautiful Unionville area of Pennsylvania. Graham has had Hardest Core in training since Jan. 1, with the bulk of his preparation coming at the nearby Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland due to winter conditions at Runnymede.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Maker’s 46 Mile lacks its superstar from the last couple of years, but at least the Grade 1 race has a more competitive look than it did for those two runnings.
Wise Dan won the 2013 and 2014 runnings of the Maker’s 46 Mile, both times as the reigning Horse of the Year and a 2-5 favorite, but with the 8-year-old gelding still sidelined, favoritism in the $300,000 race Friday over the Keeneland turf will be distributed more evenly among Summer Front, Za Approval, and Jack Milton.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The champion Untapable drew post 2 in a field of seven for the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap, to be run Friday at Oaklawn Park. The race is one of two stakes on the program. I Spent It, the winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, makes his second start of the year in the $100,000 Bachelor. Entries were taken Tuesday.
The Apple Blossom will go as the ninth race on a 10-race card that starts at 1:30 p.m. Central. Post time for the 1 1/16-mile fixture for fillies and mares is 5:10 p.m.
The horse with one of the best names on the backstretch is also one of the best horses at Oaklawn. Ivan Fallunovalot – pronounced “I’ve been falling off a lot” – is the highweight Thursday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap. He brings three straight triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures into the race, including a 108 for a January allowance score and a 105 for a win in the $100,000 King Cotton Stakes in February.
Trainer Todd Pletcher has a trio of horses targeting stakes on Saturday’s closing-day card at Oaklawn Park, and all were due to arrive in Arkansas on Tuesday.
Pletcher said Madefromlucky is being pointed for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, while Golden Lad and Race Day are on deck for the Grade 2, $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap. He said the three horses were to travel to town aboard a flight from Florida.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – After running second to Carpe Diem in Saturday’s Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, Danzig Moon was shipped to Churchill Downs on Monday morning to join trainer Mark Casse’s string in Louisville.
Danzig Moon earned 40 Kentucky Derby qualification points by finishing second in the Blue Grass. He now sits 12th in the Kentucky Derby points standings, with 45 points. There are two points races remaining in the Kentucky Derby Championship Series.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Total all-sources handle on Saturday’s 12-race Wood Memorial program at Aqueduct was $15,841,220, down 12.5 percent from the 2014 figure of $18,117,037. Ontrack handle Saturday was $2,469,614, down 9.2 percent from last year’s figure of $2,718,962.
Reported attendance Saturday was 11,213, down 11.8 percent from last year’s figure of 12,719.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Last year’s 2-year-old filly champion Take Charge Brandi is now stabled at Churchill Downs, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Monday. She had been rehabbing at Oaklawn after sustaining a non-displaced bone chip in her right knee. Lukas said Take Charge Brandi remains on schedule to resume training on May 15.
◗ Oaklawn leading rider Ricardo Santana Jr. was scheduled to ride at Will Rogers Downs on Monday, but took off his mounts after spiking a fever on Sunday night, said his agent, Ruben Munoz. Munoz looks for Santana to resume riding Wednesday at Oaklawn.
