OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Led by the top three finishers from the Grade 2 Forty Niner Stakes and three graduates from the Breeders’ Cup, a field of 12 was entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile.
A Grade 1 since 1991 - when it was known as the NYRA Mile - the Cigar Mile was downgraded by the North American Graded Stakes Committee for this year’s running. The field of 12 represents the largest since 1997, when 12 ran. It went with a full field of 14 in 1996.
Total handle and average handle per race during the recently concluded Finger Lakes meet in upstate New York were both up by approximately 20 percent compared to last year’s wagering numbers, according to figures distributed by the track. This comes at a time when many top-tier tracks are struggling to maintain their betting numbers.
Jockey Luis Quinonez is on the countdown to a major milestone of 4,000 career Thoroughbred wins. He entered the race week with 3,993 wins and is named on a number of horses at his longtime base of Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
“I can’t believe I’ve come this far,” said Quinonez, a 56-year-old native of Mexico.
Quinonez is Remington’s second all-time leading rider behind the retired Cliff Berry and has been a local fixture in some form or fashion since the track’s inaugural season.
Prominent trainer Richard Baltas is preparing to reopen a stable in California in coming weeks after completing a one-year suspension on Dec. 8 for widespread violations related to the administration of race-day supplements at Santa Anita in the spring of 2022.
Baltas said recently that he will have stalls at Santa Anita and San Luis Rey Downs with the intent of having starters at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that begins Dec. 26.
“Before the year’s up, I could have a few runners,” Baltas said. “I have old clients that want me back.
Jockey Ramon Vazquez, who has won six titles in Southern California since moving his tack from the Midwest in April 2022, will be wintering at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., agent Bill Castle said on Monday.
Vazquez plans to return to Southern California in the spring, said Castle.
Oaklawn opens Dec. 8.
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DEL MAR, Calif. – The five-time stakes winner C Z Rocket won for the first time in 2023 in his ninth start of the year in an allowance race at six furlongs at Del Mar on Saturday.
The appearance will be his final start at the track.
A 9-year-old, C Z Rocket will not be eligible to race at Del Mar as a 10-year-old. Santa Anita allows horses to race through their 10-year-old seasons, according to track officials.
C Z Rocket is bound for the winter-spring meeting at Oaklawn Park, trainer Peter Miller said. The Oaklawn meeting begins on Dec. 8.
DEL MAR, Calif. – New York-based trainer Chad Brown has won five of the last six runnings of the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares at Del Mar’s autumn meeting and plans to have four runners in the $300,000 race at a mile on turf Sunday.
Brown said over the weekend that Beaute Cachee, Fluffy Socks, Surge Capacity, and Whitebeam will be entered in the Matriarch.
DEL MAR, Calif. – In the moments after Mr Fisk won his first graded stakes in Sunday’s Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar, trainer Bob Baffert’s thoughts turned briefly to a major race at the same venue next November.
“The Breeders’ Cup Classic is here,” Baffert said. “We have to keep him happy and healthy.”
The 2024 BC Classic is a long way off, but that has not kept Baffert from hoping that Mr Fisk can develop into a leading runner in the two-turn older horse division next year.
Pretty Mischievous, a filly trained by Brendan Walsh, finished third in the 2022 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs while making her third start, wintered at Fair Grounds, and came back to Louisville to win the Kentucky Oaks.
Intricate went two places better than Pretty Mischievous, landing the Golden Rod on Saturday while making her third start. Intricate won by more than five lengths and earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure, one of the three highest numbers this year in a two-turn dirt race for 2-year-old fillies.
In 2021, Whit Beckman went into winter with a two-horse stable. Two years later, Beckman will winter horses at two different racetracks, Fair Grounds and Turfway, and trains one of the more promising 2-year-olds in North America, Honor Marie, winner of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Saturday.
Honor Marie in his route and stakes debut rallied from last into a moderate pace and won the Grade 2, $400,000 KJC by two lengths. His time of 1:44.31 for 1 1/16 miles yielded a 92 Beyer Speed Figure, and Honor Marie looked like he was just getting warmed up at this middle distance.
