Fri, 05/23/2014 - 14:43

Churchill notes: Delaunay will start next in Aristides

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Tom Amoss said Delaunay likely will make his next start in the Grade 3, $100,000 Aristides, a six-furlong race next Saturday, May 31, at Churchill. The 7-year-old gelding, an earner of $917,593, breezed four furlongs Thursday, his first work since finishing fifth in the May 3 Churchill Downs Stakes.

Fri, 05/23/2014 - 14:16

Andros making good impression as young rider

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – If hard work is one of the ingredients to success, apprentice Corrine Andros is on her way to a solid career as a jockey. She also displayed burgeoning talent when she won four races at Hastings last Saturday.

It is difficult to track down Andros in the morning because she’s one of the hardest working jockeys at Hastings and is usually exercising or working a horse. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“This isn’t work,” said Andros. “I go a bit crazy if I’m not on a horse.”

Fri, 05/23/2014 - 12:27

Untapable will skip Acorn in favor of Mother Goose

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Oaks winner Untapable will not race in the Acorn Stakes on the huge Belmont Stakes undercard June 7 and will wait instead for the next Grade 1 race at Belmont Park in the 3-year-old filly division, the Mother Goose Stakes on June 28, trainer Steve Asmussen confirmed Friday.

Fri, 05/23/2014 - 11:48

Rainbow Six players should feel need for speed

The main track at Gulfstream Park has favored speed on a pretty regular basis since the meet began Dec. 1, but never more so than over the past several weeks. That means players should lean toward using horses who figure to be on or near the front in the two dirt races in Monday’s Rainbow Six sequence.

Tue, 05/20/2014 - 14:53

Sunbean the star of Louisiana Legends Night

Coady Photography
Sunbean has won five straight stakes against Louisiana-breds and will be an overwhelming favorite in Saturday's Star Guitar.

OPELOUSAS, La. – The best in the Bayou State are set to assemble Saturday at Evangeline Downs for Louisiana Legends Night. Eight stakes, all restricted to Louisiana-breds, will be worth a combined $750,000. First post is 5:40 p.m. Central.

Top billing on the Legends program has to go to Sunbean, who will be the prohibitive favorite in the $100,000 Legends Classic. So formidable is Sunbean that only four rivals could be coaxed into facing him.

Tue, 05/20/2014 - 14:38

Velazquez picks up mount on Ride On Curlin

Adam Coglianese/NYRA
Ride On Curlin walks the shed row after arriving at Belmont Park on Tuesday.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Preakness runner-up Ride On Curlin will have his third rider in as many Triple Crown races when John Velazquez pilots him in the Belmont Stakes.

Velazquez, a two-time winner of the Belmont, replaces Joel Rosario, who is committed to ride Peter Pan winner Tonalist in the Belmont. Rosario replaced Calvin Borel, who rode Ride On Curlin to a seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

Billy Gowan, the trainer of Ride On Curlin, said he’s sorry to lose Rosario, but happy to have Velazquez.

Tue, 05/20/2014 - 14:26

Danza out of Belmont, to be freshened

Tom Keyser
Todd Pletcher has decided to send Danza to Florida and give him a break from training.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Danza, the Arkansas Derby winner and third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, will not run in the June 7 Belmont Stakes, trainer Todd Pletcher said Tuesday.

Pletcher said he was not happy with the way Danza came out of his half-mile breeze in 49.49 seconds Sunday at Belmont Park.

“Not happy the way he’s doing, think he needs a little more time, lost a little bit of weight,” Pletcher said. “We’ll give him a little bit of a break.”

Tue, 05/20/2014 - 14:08

Will Take Charge works for Stephen Foster start

Barbara D. Livingston
Will Take Charge is targeting the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 14 at Churchill for his next start.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Not since Kentucky Derby Day had such prominent stakes horses sped down the Churchill Downs stretch, though on Tuesday, they did so training in the morning, not racing in the afternoon.

Among the horses to breeze Tuesday were Will Take Charge, the champion 3-year-old male of 2013 who ran sixth as the favorite in the Alysheba Stakes on Oaks Day; Central Banker, the winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on Derby Day; and Midnight Lucky, the Grade 1 Humana Distaff winner that same afternoon.

Tue, 05/20/2014 - 12:12

One mare, one day, two winners

The 13-year-old mare Run Kaitlyn Run had two daughters win on last Thursday’s Golden Gate Fields card. Runninismygame won her debut in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden race for 2-year-old fillies, and Sheza Trip rallied to win a one-mile claiming race on turf.

Both fillies are owned and bred by Patricia Ford, trained by Bill Delia, and were ridden by Ricardo Gonzalez.

Tue, 05/20/2014 - 12:10

Mahorney's first win a memorable one

“You’ve never seen a happier group in the winner’s circle for a $4,000 claiming race,” said trainer Cinda Mahorney after Lucky Gotum’s half-length victory in the seventh race last Saturday.

The victory was Mahorney’s first as a trainer and came with the 16th runner she had saddled. It came with a 6-year-old gelding slated for retirement who had been sent to Mahorney at her Winning Start Race Farm to get over various issues. Owned by his breeder, Brent Kirk, along with Kevin Kirk and Greg McWilliams, Lucky Gotum paid $43.80 to win.