This year’s series awarding qualifying points for entry into next year's Kentucky Derby will include 36 races, starting with Saturday’s Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs, according to a schedule released Monday by track personnel.
Twenty-one of the races have been categorized in the “prep season” running from Sept. 13 to Feb. 21, with most awarding 10 or 20 points to the winner. The exception is the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, which awards 30 points to the winner.
Overshadowed by the actions of his jockey, Kendrick Caramouche, which led to the Phileas Fogg’s disqualification from third in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, was how well Phileas Fogg ran to cross the wire third in that race.
Phileas Fogg was beaten 2 3/4 lengths by Antiquarian and finished 1 1/4 lengths behind Sierra Leone in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Soon after the break, Phileas Fogg, under Carmouche, came in on Contrary Thinking starting a chain reaction that led to jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. being unseated off Mindframe, the second choice in the race.
Nitrogen, the leading 3-year-old filly in the country, and Ewing, an undefeated graded stakes-winning juvenile colt, are both slated to make their next starts at Keeneland. On their way from Saratoga to Lexington, however, both are spending some quality time at Belmont Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar showed a slight decline in all-sources handle at its 31-day summer meeting that ended on Sunday, according to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form.
Handle on races run at Del Mar decreased 1.4 percent to $355,719,467 from $360,944,231 at the corresponding meeting in 2024. The 2022 summer meeting had handle of more than $439.6 million on races run at Del Mar, compared to $391.8 million in 2023. The figures do not include simulcasting conducted in conjunction with race days or on days without live racing.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Watching from Kentucky, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert saw what he expected when Brant won Sunday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.
Brant set the pace and won the seven-furlong race as the 1-10 favorite to confirm his status among the nation’s leading 2-year-old males as the summer draws to a close.
“I’m just glad he’s in my barn and I don’t have to run against him,” Baffert said in a phone interview.
Percy’s Bar went to Saratoga from her Keeneland base and finished second behind Tommy Jo in the Grade 1 Spinaway on Aug. 30. It was not a close second. More than six lengths separated first and second in the seven-furlong Spinaway.
Percy’s Bar’s trainer, Ben Colebrook, is not exactly looking forward to a rematch with fellow 2-year-old filly Tommy Jo in the Alcibiades Stakes next month at Keeneland, but a change of venue and a move from one to two turns at least gives Colebrook a glimmer of hope.
When the calendar flipped to August, trainer Keith Desormeaux was muddling through 2025. From Jan. 1 through July 31, the Desormeaux stable scratched out 12 winners from 128 runners for earnings of about $654,0000.
“We weren’t necessarily in a funk, but just getting so close all the time,” Desormeaux said. “You got to stop on a horse right when it’s ready – things like that. We’re right there, but it’s just not happening.”
Jose D’Angelo has run horses at Churchill Downs, but late this summer and into fall – if not beyond – the trainer will stable horses there as well.
D’Angelo, at Kentucky Downs this weekend, said he has stalls for the September racing season that starts Thursday in barn 44, the former longtime home of the late D. Wayne Lukas’s stable. Among his Churchill stock are three prominent runners in recent Kentucky Downs races.
Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, British Columbia, has canceled its Friday night card due to poor air quality wrought by wildfires in the area.
There were five races set to be run Friday. A track spokeswoman told Daily Racing Form that they will likely be redrawn for next week.
Reef Runner, demoted from first to second for causing interference in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 30, has remained in California and may start in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.
Trainer David Fawkes said on Thursday that the Eddie D Stakes could serve as a prep for Reef Runner for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
“If he wins, he gets points,” Fawkes said in reference to one of the qualifying methods for the BC Turf Sprint. “That would have to help him."
