On Beyer Speed Figures, Alpine Princess vaulted to the top of the 2-year-old filly dirt-route division winning the Untapable Stakes at Fair Grounds on Saturday.
DRF Past Performances
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One wouldn’t want to force the point, but similarities exist between a retired 4-year-old named Epicenter and the 2-year-old colt Track Phantom.
Epicenter made two starts around one turn before stepping forward in his third outing to sharply win a route race. Steve Asmussen trained Epicenter, and Asmussen also trains Track Phantom.
Wed, 12/20/2023 - 16:54
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wagering at the recently concluded 2023 Woodbine meet yielded an all-sources handle of $613,125,180, the second-highest single-season handle in the track’s history, but down $8 million from 2022.
Trainer Shug McGaughey does not appear in a hurry to run impressive 2-year-old maiden winner Change of Command in a stakes race.
Change of Command, a 6 1/2-length winner of a seven-furlong maiden race on Sunday at Gulfstream, will likely make his next start in an allowance race, McGaughey said.
Change of Command, a son of Into Mischief who brought $1.05 million at auction, raced up close to the pace and drew clear while drifting out a tad to win handily. He ran seven furlongs in 1:25.02 and earned a 77 Beyer Speed Figure.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Integration, the undefeated 3-year-old, is likely to run in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 27, trainer Shug McGaughey said Tuesday.
“I’m going to pencil it in. We’ll see how it comes up and how he’s doing. It’s a good possibility,” McGaughey said.
Integration, a son of Quality Road, is 3 for 3, with victories in the Grade 3 Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs and the Grade 2 Hill Prince at Aqueduct, the latter in which he equaled a 38-year turf course record.
Intricate, the 5 1/4-length winner of the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes last month at Churchill, is likely to make her 3-year-old debut in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 17, trainer Brendan Walsh said.
Intricate, a daughter of Gun Runner, was fifth in her sprint debut, captured a Keeneland maiden route second time out, and made short work of seven rivals in the Golden Rod on Nov. 25.
“We’re just keeping her ticking over down [at Fair Grounds] for the moment, light training,” Walsh said. “We’ll probably keep her fresh and go straight to the Rachel.”
The New York State Gaming Commission will not hear appeals filed by the connections of two horses involved in the controversial running of last Saturday’s $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Series at Aqueduct.
The commission, via letter, informed the representatives of the horses Brick Ambush and The Big Torpedo that the decisions made by the stewards were judgment calls “based on questions of fact, which the stewards are empowered to make . . . and the decision is therefore not appealable to the Commission.”
Shane Wilson has won the last three training titles at Louisiana Downs. His ascendance in Bossier City now has cut kitty-corner across Louisiana to New Orleans.
Through Sunday, Wilson had 15 Fair Grounds winners, nine more than Joe Sharp, whose six winners rank second among Fair Grounds trainers. Wilson’s volume of runners has been as surprising as his winners: Just 17 days into the 2023-24 season, Wilson already had 80 starters, 35 more than the next-highest total.
Though it offers a purse of just $100,000, the Gun Runner Stakes has yielded a Kentucky Derby runner in each of its first two years of existence, though Epicenter, the Derby runner-up in 2022, turned into a far more important horse than Jace’s Road, 17th in this year’s Derby.
Epicenter’s trainer, Steve Asmussen, and Jace’s Road’s trainer, Brad Cox, each have two entries in Saturday’s Gun Runner, which, along with the rest of an eight-stakes Dec. 23 card, was drawn this past Saturday.
High-class Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old filly sprinters Vahva and Alva Starr in a different year likely would be starting Dec. 26 at Santa Anita in the Grade 1 La Brea. Instead, the two fillies, respectively first and second last out in the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland, are being aimed at lesser objectives.
Connections of the pair found a dearth of California-bound flights in December. Faced with the prospect of a 28-hour van trip, everyone took a pass.