OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, a multiple Grade 1 winner who was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last time out, may not be done with her 3-year-old season just yet.
Trainer Leah Gyarmati said Monday that she is considering running Sweet Reason in the Grade 3, $400,000 Comely Stakes for 3-year-old fillies here Nov. 29.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – After her victory in the Princes Elizabeth Stakes on Nov. 2 at Woodbine, trainer John Ross said Brooklynsway would be pointed to the $150,000 Ontario Lassie Stakes on Nov. 30, but he added that running her against males in the $250,000 Coronation Futurity on Nov. 29 is a possibility.
“Her numbers were pretty nice,” he said. “She’s a pretty happy filly, and she’s come out of the [Princess Elizabeth] real good. I’m going to take a look at [the Coronation Futurity] and maybe consider it, but definitely the Ontario Lassie.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mark Casse is closing in on his eighth straight training title at Woodbine, as he leads all trainers with 84 wins for the meet. With the end of the season quickly approaching, Casse said he will have horses spread out across Florida, California, and Oaklawn Park for the winter.
Several of Casse’s horses who have had success at Woodbine this season are already in California and have their next starts picked out.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A down period of several months actually isn’t very long for a journeyman rider of nearly 35 years to endure. But after Jon Court enjoyed a breakthrough Sunday at Churchill Downs by riding three winners, he couldn’t even remember the last time he had enjoyed such a good day.
“I really can’t think of my last big day like that,” Court said Monday. “This latest injury, it really seemed to have that sense of drag.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pirate’s Trove has shipped to Woodbine for a pair of stakes wins on Polytrack this season in the Duchess and Etobicoke stakes and appears poised for a return engagement in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Bessarabian Stakes.
Pirate’s Trove was undefeated in three starts heading into her last race on dirt at Keeneland in the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes on Oct. 18, but she didn’t appear to handle the surface and finished last of 11.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Great Lou is nominated to the Grade 3, $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes for 2-year-olds on Saturday, but trainer Leandro Mora said he was more likely to run Thursday in race 6, a starter allowance going six furlongs.
Great Lou cruised to a 4 1/2-length victory in his debut Oct. 24 at Santa Anita when facing maiden claimers.
“I don’t want to throw him to the lions,” Mora said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Not having a point of reference as to how this fall meeting would unfold at Del Mar was like “having just one leg on the dock,” said Joe Harper, Del Mar’s president and chief executive. Yet three days into this 15-day voyage, the ship is steady as she goes.
After an extraordinarily successful summer and fall in New Jersey and Kentucky, jockey Paco Lopez has come home to Florida.
Lopez dominated the standings at Monmouth Park this summer, winning 120 races at the meet, more than twice as many as runner-up Gabriel Saez. Lopez set a record for victories in a day at Monmouth, winning seven races on a card not once but twice.
The title was the third at Monmouth for Lopez, who also led the standings in 2013 and 2010. He was second at Monmouth in both 2011 and 2012.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The results of the Breeders’ Cup last weekend at Santa Anita were met with delight by officials at Keeneland, the Lexington, Ky., track where the championships will be held for the first time next Oct. 30-31.
Three of the 13 Breeders’ Cup winners – Dayatthespa, Work All Week, and Take Charge Brandi – ran their final prep races at Keeneland, while a fourth, Judy the Beauty, trained toward the Breeders’ Cup exclusively at Keeneland.
