Normandy Invasion, unraced since finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby, has rejoined trainer Chad Brown’s stable at Palm Meadows in south Florida and is in light training for a 4-year-old campaign.
Brown said Normandy Invasion has been in Florida for about two weeks and could begin galloping next week.
Normandy Invasion, who finished second in last year’s Grade 1 Wood Memorial, missed most of the summer due to a foot abscess and general body soreness, according to Brown.
The new, post-Breeders Cup-situated Hawthorne Gold Cup should have at least a decent field when it’s run Nov. 30, though perhaps not one quite befitting of a Grade 2 race with a $350,000 purse. A lack of high-class depth, however, was not hard to anticipate with the race going head-to-head against the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.
NEW ORLEANS – It will not take long for Arlington chairman Richard Duchossois to get a good idea exactly what he purchased for $450,000 earlier this month at Keeneland’s November horse auction.
General Election, the 3-year-old colt Duchossois bought from WinStar Farm’s consignment of horses of racing age, is stabled with new trainer Neil Pessin at Fair Grounds and is scheduled to work on Saturday morning, and if all goes well he will make his first start for his new connections on Nov. 30 in the $75,000 Woodchopper Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Palace, claimed for $20,000 13 months ago, will seek to become a graded stakes winner when he runs in Thursday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct.
Since being claimed by Linda Rice and owner Antonino Miuccio, Palace has won 6 of 9 starts, including, most recently, the $150,000 Hudson Handicap for New York-breds at Belmont Park. That race came two months after Palace knocked off Grade 1 winner The Lumber Guy in the Chowders First Stakes at Saratoga.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Game On Dude has been assigned high weight of 126 pounds, three more than his younger rival, Will Take Charge, for the signature race at the Churchill Downs fall meet, the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark Handicap next Friday.
The weight spread between the two Clark favorites is a tad closer than in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which 3-year-old Will Take Charge carried 122 pounds when finishing second by a nose at 8-1 to Mucho Macho Man. Game On Dude was a fading ninth as the 8-5 favorite under 126 pounds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Agustin Bezara came within one week of realizing every trainer’s dream – to start a horse in the Kentucky Derby. But Bezara never did make it to Louisville, his dream shattered after Reveron suffered a slight fracture of his left front ankle during a one-mile workout at Calder the Saturday before the 2012 Kentucky Derby.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Apprentice jockey Drayden VanDyke won for the first time on Thursday, riding Money Clip to victory in the sixth race at Betfair Hollywood Park. It was the second mount of his career.
VanDyke, 19, guided Money Clip ($9.40) from off the pace with a wide run to win the six-furlong race by a half-length over 12-1 I Buy Gold. Money Clip needed minimal urging, getting a tap of the whip from VanDyke through the stretch.
“It felt great to get my first win,” he said. “This is the best experience ever.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When Better Lucky won the $250,000 Matriarch Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park in a 35-1 upset in 2012, the race proved that she is best in one-mile turf races.
This year, Better Lucky’s campaign has been geared toward such stakes, including a return to California for the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares on Dec. 1.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Trainer John Ross is having one of his best years from a monetary perspective, and Lexie Lou will try to keep the ball rolling in Sunday’s $125,000 South Ocean Stakes at Woodbine.
The South Ocean, a 1 1/16-mile test for Ontario-sired juvenile fillies, is usually among the weakest stakes of the Woodbine meet, but Sunday’s edition is exceptional, and it could contain a future Sovereign Award finalist.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The comeback of champion My Miss Aurelia remains on hold and will now likely not take place until this winter in south Florida.
Hoping to run My Miss Aurelia in the Grade 2, $300,000 Go for Wand at Aqueduct on Nov. 29, trainer Todd Pletcher has had to scrap those plans due to a nagging foot issue that has plagued My Miss Aurelia for the past month. Pletcher said that My Miss Aurelia will head to south Florida on Saturday to train for a presumed comeback beginning at Gulfstream Park in early 2014.
