ARCADIA, Calif. – Now what?
That’s the question Eclipse Award voters will be asking over the next two months after a Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Santa Anita that had the promise of emphatically deciding both Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male, but ended in controversy.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Constitution's 2-year-old half-sister, Jacaranda, won Sunday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Tempted Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths over Paulassilverlining. She ran a mile under windy conditions in 1:40.24 and earned a 72 Beyer Speed Figure.
Unlike in her maiden win, Jacaranda broke alertly Sunday and led throughout under Jose Ortiz.
“She did it right for a change,” trainer Mike Hushion said. “Experience was her best trainer.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though it wasn’t a very good weekend for him at the Breeders’ Cup, trainer Todd Pletcher did quite well at Aqueduct, winning two of the three graded stakes.
On Saturday, Pletcher won the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap for 3-year-olds with Protonico. On Sunday, Pletcher was back from Southern California to saddle Blofeld to a five-length victory over El Kabeir in the Grade 2, $250,000 Nashua.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Midnight Aria, appears to be on track to make his first stakes start since his Queen’s Plate triumph last year in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Autumn Stakes at Woodbine.
Midnight Aria made his first start since his Queen’s Plate win back on Aug. 8, when he finished sixth in a one-mile starter allowance on the grass. But he bounced back nicely in his next start, taking an optional-claiming field gate to wire on the Polytrack on Sept. 28.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pohdi Pohdi appeared poised for a big run as the morning-line favorite in the Fanfreluche Stakes on Oct. 26 at Woodbine, but she had to be scratched after flipping on her way over to the paddock. Trainer Robert Tiller said Pohdi Pohdi escaped the incident without serious injury, but will be given the rest of the year off.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – While the Breeders’ Cup World Championships helped to settle several divisional championships for the Eclipse Awards, several horses may have secured Sovereign Award championships as a result of their performances at Santa Anita, Woodbine, and Churchill Downs over the weekend.
The Conquest Stables duo of Conquest Typhoon and Conquest Harlanate could be named champion 2-year-old male and champion 2-year-old female, respectively, after they both participated in Breeders’ Cup races on Friday.
CYPRESS, Calif. - A 2-year-old gelding who got loose during warm-ups and fell into an infield pond on Sunday night was saved from drowning by the efforts of an outrider, a veterinarian and members of the track’s maintenance and starting gate crews.
Walk the Dog, co-owned and trained by Lin Melton, unseated his rider before the seventh race and jumped a rail into the infield. Outrider Eric Najduch ran into the infield and was trying to corral Walk the Dog when the gelding fell into a pond on the westernmost part of the infield, which is not lit at night.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Mike Luzzi suffered a broken leg and a fractured pelvis in a paddock accident prior to the ninth race at Aqueduct on Sunday.
Luzzi, 45, had just been given a leg up on the 2-year-old filly Tricky Zippy when she flipped over and fell on top of him. On Sunday night, Luzzi’s agent, David Grace, said Luzzi had fractured his pelvis in five places and the tibia of his left leg in two places.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Little Alexis, who finished a disappointing ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, was scratched from Monday’s Fasig-Tipton sale after spiking a temperature of 104 immediately after the race due to a possible reaction to her Lasix shot, according to owner-trainer Carlo Vaccarezza.
Vaccarezza said Little Alexis, who finished third earlier this year in the Grade 1 Test, returned to the barn after the Sprint breathing heavily and with a noticeable lump on the left side of her neck.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Owner-trainer Wesley Ward said from Florida early Sunday that he intends to bring Judy the Beauty back as a 6-year-old next April at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes, a race the mare won this year en route to what surely will be a divisional championship.
