LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The presence of a mare named Ultimate Class in the Friday feature at Churchill Downs came not by design but by way of necessity.
“There just haven’t been any other spots for her,” said Mike Tomlinson, who trains Ultimate Class for the Patricia’s Hope LLC of Chicago-area businessman Vinny Foglia. “The Arlington races weren’t filling, she wasn’t eligible for anything at Kentucky Downs, and they didn’t card any turf sprints here at Churchill this meet.”
Real Dingo, who is coming off a fourth-place finish in the $100,000 Speed to Spare, will appreciate the substantially easier company when he runs in a $25,000 optional claimer that headlines an eight-race card Friday at Northlands Park. The 1 1/16-mile feature for 3-year-olds and up drew six horses and goes as the seventh race. Post time for the first race is 6 p.m. Mountain.
Primed for Passion will look for her fifth win in as many starts this year in the $100,000 HBPA Stakes for older fillies and mares Thursday evening at Presque Isle Downs. It is the final card of the 100-day Presque Isle meet, and the race will be run as the fifth of eight races.
The 3-year-old filly is trained by Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard, and all four of her wins this year have come at Presque Isle. After Sheppard took over her training, she won her maiden May 13 and then an entry-level allowance race June 23. On July 30, she won a second-level allowance.
Departing’s list of challengers for the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park on Sunday is starting to swell. Cameo Appearance is probable for the 1 1/8-mile race, trainer Wayne Catalano said Tuesday, while Carve and Texas Bling also have been confirmed by their connections to be part of a projected field of eight. Entries will be taken Thursday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It would have come as no surprise had the connections of Flat Out announced his retirement at the end of last year.
The “A” team will be out in force Thursday when Jena Antonucci saddles three runners in a pair of six-furlong allowance races that highlight a 10-race program at Belmont Park.
“We’re ready to roll,” said Antonucci, who sent out three winners at Saratoga and has kept up the momentum with two more at Belmont’s fall meet.
Shug McGaughey seldom ships horses to Delaware Park, and all he has to show for seven starts there since 2010 is a third-place finish in a maiden race earlier this month. The three horses McGaughey has run on Delaware’s turf course have finished sixth, seventh, and ninth.
Nevertheless, there is one potent trainer angle McGaughey has working in his favor that helps to explain why Admiral Perry is the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Thursday’s $50,000 With Anticipation Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race which drew a field of 11 older horses.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Lady of Fifty and Richard’s Kid, graded stakes winners at Del Mar during the summer, have been retired, their respective trainers said Tuesday.
Lady of Fifty, winner of the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar last month, will be sold as a broodmare prospect at Keeneland in November, according to co-owner and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
Richard’s Kid, who won the Grade 3 Cougar II at Del Mar in July, has been retired after the presence of heat was found in a tendon, trainer Doug O’Neill said.
LEXINGTON – Bucky Sallee, the bugler at Keeneland for the past 51 years and a beloved fixture at the track, has retired and will be named the racing industry’s first bugler emeritus.
Sallee will be replaced by Steve Buttleman, who is entering his 18th year of bugling at Churchill Downs this fall. Buttleman also has bugled at Belmont Park and Oaklawn Park, Keeneland said.
