HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Todd Pletcher and the rest of his training colleagues from up North will not start running horses at Gulfstream Park in earnest until the championship meeting begins Nov. 30. But there were some early signs of winter around here last weekend, when Pletcher and jockey Edgar Prado teamed up to win a pair of races, including Saturday’s main event, the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Classic Preview, with Mordi’s Miracle.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the first time since Churchill Downs began hosting night racing, a Downs After Dark program will directly conflict with a University of Louisville football home game at nearby Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Saturday, calling into question whether track attendance might be adversely affected.
Clearly, it wasn’t planned that way. A 7 p.m. Eastern kickoff for the Houston-Louisville game Saturday was not announced until Nov. 4, while Churchill long ago scheduled a 4:30 p.m. start for the only night card of its fall meet.
Golden Gate Fields held a prep race for the Nov. 29 Berkeley Handicap last Friday. Old rivals Positive Response and Hudson Landing signed up, even though the race was on turf and the Berkeley will be run on the main track.
Alas, the rivalry didn’t get its renewal.
Positive Response, the 6-5 morning-line favorite, was scratched. Hudson Landing, who went off as the 6-5 favorite in a field of four, ran last every step of the way. Neither of the veteran stakes winners will compete in the Berkeley.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mike Keogh has spent his off-seasons on the farm in Aiken, S.C., since taking on the position as trainer for owner-breeder Gustav Schickedanz in 1993.
But time and circumstances bring changes, and this year Keogh will be heading to Fair Grounds, where he has 24 stalls for the meeting that begins Nov. 22.
The Arkansas Racing Commission has proposed a number of amendments to the state’s claiming and workout rules, and if adopted the changes would go into effect with the start of the Oaklawn Park meet in January. Public comment is being received on the amendments, which will be considered for adoption at the commission’s next meeting Nov. 21.
Casiguapo, runner-up in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, was among 14 horses pre-entered Tuesday in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot. The field for the 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds will be limited to 10 when it is run Nov. 23. Final entries are Nov. 19.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Saturday drew a field of six, none of which has won a stakes.
Be Proud, Georgia, and Saintly Joan each won a maiden race in her last start. Perched and Pleasant Miss have placed in stakes. Arethusa is a maiden after three starts.
Perched was third in the Barretts Debutante Stakes at the Los Angeles County Fair in September. Pleasant Miss has been second or third in four stakes for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Shared Belief, unbeaten winner of Sunday’s $100,000 Hollywood Prevue Stakes, will get a distance test in the $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Betfair Hollywood Park on Dec. 14.
Shared Belief may go favored in the Grade 1 race over 1 1/16 miles.
“As long as the horse is good, we’ll try it,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Monday. “I think we’d be foolish not to consider it. He ran a really good race. He likes Hollywood.”
Groupie Doll, purchased for $3.1 million by Mandy Pope a few days after winning her second straight Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, has settled in at Belmont in preparation for another try in the Nov. 30 Cigar Mile, a Grade 1 race she lost in heart-breaking fashion last year to Stay Thirsty.
Groupie Doll had her first trip to the track Sunday morning, jogging a mile and galloping a mile over the training track.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A few more like that, and Almost Famous might be more than “almost.” The 2-year-old colt blew away what appeared to be a very competitive field of allowance routers Saturday at Churchill Downs, leading Pat Byrne to already start working backward from the 2014 Kentucky Derby.
