After starting the year winning two Grade 3 turf races at Santa Anita and finishing second in the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes on April 20 at Keeneland, Missed the Cut is going up the ladder and across the pond.
The 5-year-old exited the Elkhorn in good shape and trainer John Sadler confirmed he will aim to the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes on June 22 at Royal Ascot.
“That’s what we’re looking at, Royal Ascot, he would train up,” Sadler said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stronghold and Endlessly, seventh and ninth, respectively, in the Kentucky Derby, were scheduled to return to Santa Anita this week to be freshened for summer campaigns. Stronghold will stay on dirt, Endlessly will return to turf, and both are likely to drop in class for their next start.
Stronghold’s trainer Phil D’Amato said “we’ll bring him back here and recharge the batteries. They’ve got a bunch of straight 3-year-old stakes in the Midwest.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Judge Miller went backward on speed figures when he finished second April 20 at Santa Anita in the Grade 2 Californian, but no one is sounding an alarm. After earning a 105 Beyer Speed Figure winning an entry-level allowance Feb. 24, Judge Miller regressed to a 94 in the Californian.
“It was only his fourth lifetime start, and I think seasoning caught up with him a little bit,” trainer Mark Glatt said this week. “He came back good. I think he’ll bounce back and still develop into a bona fide stakes horse.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – California trainer Jorge Periban will put a perfect record in Kentucky on the line June 30, when he sends the dazzling 2-year-old debut winner Bodacious from Santa Anita to Churchill Downs for the Bashford Manor Stakes.
Periban is 2 for 2 in Churchill stakes – Phantom Boss won the 2019 Bashford Manor, Tom’s Regret won the 2022 Kentucky Juvenile. Both were favorites. Based on an impressive debut, the newest Periban trainee may follow suit.
Owners and trainers who start horses during the four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga (June 6-9) will be eligible for additional money as the result of a bonus program announced Tuesday by the New York Racing Association.
Owners will be eligible for a starter bonus for horses finishing fourth through last in all races offered during the four days of racing at Saratoga. The bonus will be $1,500 for horses in stakes, $1,000 for horses starting in overnight races.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The highs and lows of Kentucky Derby weekend behind him, trainer Chad Brown is now zeroing in on the four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga where it looks like he will be loaded for many of the 23 stakes being offered from June 6-9.
Of course, he already announced that Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone is targeting the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 8. But, wait, there’s more.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park closed a memorable meet Sunday, with a more than 5 percent increase in average daily handle and the distinction of its stakes program producing the winners of this year’s Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks.
Mystik Dan won the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn and was third in its Arkansas Derby in his starts preceding his victory in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Thorpedo Anna won the Fantasy – which was upgraded in status to a Grade 2 for 2024 – one race out from her win in the Kentucky Oaks.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Friday’s eight-race program at Santa Anita has a carryover of $104,580 in the $1 pick six.
The bet proved too difficult on Sunday when Visually ($36), Squalotoro ($30.20), and Vitalera ($61.80) won the seventh through ninth races on a 10-race program.
The carryover was clinched after Vitalera’s win.
On Friday, the pick six covers the third through eighth races, which have fields of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, and 7.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stronghold is unlikely to race at 1 1/4 miles in the foreseeable future after finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said Sunday that Stronghold will resume racing this summer. A race goal has not been selected.
“We’ll freshen him up a little bit,” D’Amato said.
“He came out of the race 100 percent. I think he’s got lots of opportunities. He needs his distance, maybe a mile and a sixteenth or a mile and an eighth.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The invitation is tempting. The details, however, are daunting.
With a win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita, the 7-year-old gelding Gold Phoenix earned a berth in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park, near London, on July 6.
The $752,000 Eclipse Stakes is one of Britain’s leading races at 1 1/4 miles. With its prize money and prestige, the race annually draws a terrific field, one that left trainer Phil D’Amato on Sunday thinking more about a domestic campaign than an international trip for Gold Phoenix.
