OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Book’em Danno, dominant winner of Sunday’s off-the-turf Futurity Stakes at Aqueduct, will likely have one more start this year but where and on what surface is yet to be determined.
The Futurity, when scheduled for six furlongs on turf, was billed as a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, meaning the winner got a fees-paid berth into the Juvenile Turf Sprint plus a $10,000 travel stipend. This year’s Breeders’ Cup will be held at Santa Anita on Nov. 3-4.
The 4-year-old colt Smile Happy, who ran one of the fastest races this year winning the Alysheba Stakes in May, has been getting his mind right at trainer Kenny McPeek’s farm in Florida in preparation for a 2024 campaign.
Smile Happy didn’t race for 10 months after finishing eighth in the 2022 Kentucky Derby. The Alysheba, on May 5, was his third start following the long break and in it Smile Happy made manifest the vast unexpressed reserve of talent he’d hinted at throughout his career, winning by two lengths with an elite 110 Beyer Speed Figure.
Albizu is among the horses trainer Robertino Diodoro plans to bring to Zia Park for the $1.1 million Land of Enchantment card of seven stakes Nov. 28.
Albizu is coming off a win in the $100,000 David M. Vance at Remington Park. He closed from last for a half-length victory in the six-furlong stakes on Sept. 24 and Diodoro said he will now target the $100,000 Zia Park Sprint.
“He’s a horse that tries all the time,” Diodoro said. “He didn’t have a huge pace to run at and still came running. He had some pace, but not crazy. I just thought he ran a really big race.
Du Jour and Exaulted, the first two finishers of the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Sept. 2, are on comparable schedules in advance of expected starts in the toughest race of their careers in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
On the infield training track at Santa Anita on Friday, Du Jour worked a half-mile in 47.20 seconds, while Exaulted was given a half-mile time of 47.40 seconds even though he continued the work around the first turn, according to trainer Pete Eurton.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Slow Down Andy, emphatic winner of the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes last weekend at Santa Anita, will have to wait until next year for another shot at the Breeders’ Cup, trainer Doug O’Neill said Thursday.
The good news is owners Paul and Zilla Reddam plan to race the son of Nyquist next season at age 5. O’Neill said the colt’s setback is minor, though untimely.
California trainers Dan Blacker and Jeff Mullins were recently sanctioned by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit for violations that occurred with runners in their care at the Del Mar summer meeting.
Blacker was suspended seven days, beginning on Tuesday of this week, and fined $1,000 after Miss O’Brien tested positive for a controlled substance, the tranquilizer acepromazine, after a workout on Aug. 23.
A little more than a week after his arrival from New York, the star 3-year-old Arcangelo worked five furlongs in 1:02.20 at Santa Anita on Thursday, the start of his local preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4.
“It was a nice first work over the surface,” trainer Jena Antonucci said. “I’m boring. I have no complaint.”
Arcangelo, unraced since a one-length win on a muddy track in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga on Aug. 26, was ridden by his regular exercise rider Robert Mallari in the workout.
Jessica Pyfer, the champion apprentice jockey of 2021, announced her retirement last week and has accepted a position as a commentator on Santa Anita’s in-house television network.
Pyfer, 25, had her final mounts at a jockey competition in Spain in late September. She had her final mount in the United States at Del Mar in early August.
Pyfer began riding in fall 2020 and won 88 races from 819 mounts in the United States in her career. She had her best season in 2021, winning 59 races. Last year, Pyfer won 11 races. She was winless with 10 domestic mounts this year.
Del Mar has cut the purses of six graded stakes by $400,000 for its upcoming autumn meeting from Nov. 10 to Dec. 3.
The track, which announced its stakes program for the season on Tuesday, has scheduled 15 stakes worth $2.05 million, compared to 15 stakes worth $2.45 million in 2022.
The Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf, the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles, the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf, and the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on dirt were each reduced by $50,000.
The unbeaten 2-year-old Prince of Monaco is likely to skip Saturday’s Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita in favor of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at the same venue on Nov. 3, trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday.
Prince of Monaco, rated as the nation’s leading juvenile male, has won three races, including a sweep of the two graded stakes for the division at the Del Mar summer meeting – the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes by 4 1/4 lengths at six furlongs on Aug. 13 and a hard-fought win by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs on Sept. 10.
