HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Florida Derby winner Fierceness is certainly the most high-profile South Florida-based 3-year-old training up to this year’s Kentucky Derby. But he’s not the only one.
DRF Past Performances
Skip to main content
There are few things acclaimed international jockey Frankie Dettori hasn’t accomplished in his career. He checked one off the list Saturday at Keeneland and is hoping for another in a few weeks at Churchill Downs.
Dettori won his first graded stakes race at Keeneland on Saturday, piloting Beaute Cachee to a front-running 25-1 upset in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley. Dettori’s only previous stakes win at Keeneland, at any level, came when he was in town for the 2015 Breeders’ Cup and rode Sheikh of Sheikhs to a win in the Juvenile Dirt Sprint on the undercard.
The late-blooming Encino still has room for development as he eyes the spring classics, trainer Brad Cox and jockey Florent Geroux both said following the colt’s win in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.
Encino, who has shipped from Keeneland to Cox’s base at Churchill Downs, set the pace in the Lexington and turned back The Wine Steward for a three-quarter-length win. The Godolphin homebred was making just his fourth career start, first on dirt, and first in a graded stakes race.
Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, will showcase most of its stakes races over four key cards during the track’s 41-date meet that opens Thursday night. The season will run through July 14.
The richest of the cards will be Lone Star Million Day, when six stakes worth a total of $1.2 million will be run on May 27. The program is anchored by the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile and includes the $300,000 Texas Derby.
Kentucky Derby probable Just Steel emerged from a Thursday work at Oaklawn Park in good order and was scheduled to ship Saturday to Churchill Downs, according to his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas.
Just Steel, who ranks 12th in points for the Kentucky Derby following his runner-up finish in the Arkansas Derby on March 30, had his first work out of that race Thursday. He went five-eighths on a track rated muddy in 1:00.80.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Two-year-olds will ultimately be the main focus at Gulfstream Park as the spring and summer meets progress, and if Friday’s first baby race of the season is any indication, it should be a good year for locally based juveniles.
With jockey Patrick Husbands in town for the occasion, Mensa, a son of Complexity, sprinted right to the front and was in control throughout, drawing away to a convincing three-length victory over Unchained Elaine with the 3-5 Delightful Flame finishing a well-beaten sixth following a poor start.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ralph Nicks will bring down the curtain on his 20-year training career following the conclusion of Sunday’s program at Gulfstream Park.
Nicks, 57, has saddled 722 winners, the most notable being Eclipse Award winner Caledonia Road, winner of the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. He also won the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs four years earlier with Aubby K.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – It was back to work on Friday for Florida Derby winner and potential Kentucky Derby favorite Fierceness, who breezed an easy half-mile in 50.17 seconds in company with his Grade 2-winning stablemate Agate Road just after dawn at Palm Beach Downs.
Despite the fact the work was strictly maintenance by design, the importance of the drill in the overall scheme of things was not lost on trainer Todd Pletcher or Fierceness’ regular rider, John Velazquez, who flew in overnight from Keeneland to put the reigning 2-year-old champion male through his paces Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - El Grande O, who was scratched out of Saturday’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial during the post parade due to lameness in his right front, had been dealing with a bit of a foot issue in the week leading up to the race, trainer Linda Rice said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Gin Gin, a well-beaten third in last Saturday’s Grade 3 Gazelle Stakes, remains on course for a start in the Kentucky Oaks, trainer Brad Cox said.
Gin Gin basically qualified for the Oaks with her victory in the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 13. After finishing third in the Busher Stakes on March 2, Gin Gin was beaten 9 1/4 lengths in the Gazelle by Where’s My Ring.
The horse has already shipped to Churchill Downs to train towards the Oaks.