STICKNEY, Ill. – For handicappers, one the most pressing questions early in Hawthorne’s fall-winter meet is which horses that have run well over Arlington’s synthetic Polytrack surface will transfer their form to dirt. Direct form correspondence between the two surfaces is rare, and can lead to heavy favorites going down in flames, and horses that looked hapless on the other side of Chicagoland coming in at long odds.
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DRF Past Performances
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan had his first workout since his lengthy win streak was halted when he breezed a half-mile in 47.40 seconds before dawn Friday on the Polytrack course at Keeneland.
Trainer Charlie LoPresti had wanted to breeze Wise Dan, the 2012 Horse of the Year, on the turf, but recent rain led him to settle on the Polytrack.
“I thought the grass might be a little soft, so we went ahead with this,” he said. “It was really no big deal either way.”
The Lumber Guy, runner-up in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint, was confirmed as a starter for this year’s Sprint, trainer Mike Hushion said Thursday.
[BREEDERS’ CUP 2013: See DRF’s top contenders]
On Thursday, The Lumber Guy worked four furlongs in 48.63 over the Belmont main track. He went his first quarter in 24.09 and his second quarter in 23.54. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.03 under Mike Luzzi, who will ride him in the Sprint.
Flat Out, third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, worked five furlongs in 1:01.38 over the Oklahoma training track in preparation for a return trip to the Classic.
Saratoga clockers timed Flat Out in 12.66 for the first eighth, 24.76 for the quarter, 48.06 for a half-mile, and had him galloping out six furlongs in 1:15.49.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Diamond Bachelor worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Thursday, preparing for his first start on dirt in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 2.
Trained by Patrick Biancone, Diamond Bachelor has won 2 of 3 starts. He won the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on Sept. 4 and was second in the Zuma Beach Stakes on turf here Sept. 6.
Co-owner Kin Hui, who attended Thursday’s workout, said that the $1 million BC Juvenile Turf on Nov. 1 was considered but that the BC Juvenile is the goal.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Take Control, a 6-year-old horse by A.P. Indy out of 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri, was euthanized after suffering a catastrophic leg injury to his right foreleg in a workout at Santa Anita on Thursday.
Take Control was working in company near the quarter pole when he broke down and fell. Jockey Martin Garcia was unseated, falling clear of Take Control. Garcia remained on the ground but walked off the track under his own power. The incident occurred shortly after 9 a.m.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Private Zone needed only 45.80 seconds to complete a solo half-mile workout at Santa Anita on Thursday, preparing for the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 2.
Fifteen minutes after the workout, jockey Martin Pedroza was still feeling the effects.
“I’m still tired from working him,” Pedroza said, seated on the concrete steps of the Santa Anita grandstand.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Alpha, upset winner of the Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga on Aug. 31, is being pointed to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Thursday.
Alpha, who at 3 dead-heated for win in the $1 million Travers with Golden Ticket – coincidentally also headed to the Dirt Mile – is coming out of a sixth-place finish in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 28.
Fort Erie wound up a 40-day meeting Tuesday that may indeed be its last after the Niagara Region racetrack received an 11th-hour reprieve this spring.
A report last Friday released by the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Transition Panel, which promised $400 million in provincial funding to a number of Ontario racetracks, did not provide any specific funding for Fort Erie.
Jim Thibert, head of the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium, indicated that Fort Erie’s future now will hinge on a report from the province’s auditor general. The report is expected in mid-November.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ciao Bella Luna will attempt to duplicate what Gypsy Robin did last year, sweeping the Beaumont and Raven Run stakes, when she runs back Saturday at Keeneland for the first time since winning the Beaumont Stakes here in April.
Ciao Bella Luna is part of an oversubscribed field of 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run Stakes, the richest race remaining on Keeneland’s fall-meet stakes schedule. Only one other filly has won both the Beaumont and the Raven Run, and that was Gypsy Robin.