Called to Serve, who was developing into a solid player in the handicap division, will be out until late fall after injuring a splint bone, trainer Nick Canani said.
Called to Serve hasn’t run since finishing third behind Game On Dude and Clubhouse Ride in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in early March. In subsequent training, Called to Serve injured a splint bone and had a “small procedure” to remove part of the bone, Canani said.
The 6-year-old mare Down Town Allen, who dominated the richest race for West Virginia-bred older fillies and mares that Charles Town offers last fall, and the youngster Jax and Jill, the best 2-year-old statebred filly on the grounds last season, will meet for the first time in Saturday night’s $50,000 Fancy Buckles Stakes.
The 4 1/2-furlong race, restricted to West Virginia-bred fillies and mares, drew a field of seven.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Nates Mineshaft has accomplished more than any of his nine opponents in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hanshin Cup, and the race’s second-most accomplished horse, Mister Marti Gras, proved no match for Nates Mineshaft when they met twice last year. But that is painting the Hanshin in very broad strokes, and any bettor considering taking a shot with Nates Mineshaft, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, would do well to consider the finer points.
When John Shirreffs shipped Eblouissante from Southern California to New York last month, he was hoping to have Zenyatta’s younger half-sister ready for Monday’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Handicap.
But Eblouissante developed a temperature shortly after her arrival, Shirreffs said Thursday, which is why she didn’t make it back to the work tab until Wednesday.
“She got real dehydrated when she first got here,” Shirreffs said. “She got a temperature about two days after she got here.”
Arapahoe Park in Aurora, Colo., opens a 39-date mixed meet on Saturday with a strong population of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, bolstered by new stables from Arizona and Nebraska. There are also two new offtrack betting facilities serving Arapahoe, while the stakes schedule is again centered around the $100,000 Gold Rush Futurity for 2-year-old Thoroughbreds on the closing-day card Aug. 18.
Arapahoe gets its season started with a nine-race program that drew 83 horses.
Goldencents, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby who was unplaced in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, will be pointed for the $500,000 King’s Bishop Stakes over seven furlongs for 3-year-olds at Saratoga on Aug. 25, trainer Doug O’Neill said.
O’Neill said that Goldencents is unlikely to race around two turns this summer after finishing 17th in the Kentucky Derby on May 4 and fifth of nine in the Preakness Stakes on May 18.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As he approaches one milestone this year and an even more significant one likely next year, jockey John Velazquez maintains that he still has “that fire” to compete at the highest level.
Velazquez, 41, entered Friday’s card at Belmont Park with 4,991 career victories and soon will become the 28th rider to win 5,000 races. Through Thursday, he ranked third all-time in career purse money won with $286,000,638, trailing leader Pat Day by $11.9 million.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Admiral Kitten finished second May 3 in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill Downs behind Noble Tune, one of the better 3-year-old grass horses in North America. While out west April 21 at Santa Anita, Procurement scored a comfortable victory in the La Puente Stakes. Mike Smith makes a rare Arlington appearance to ride Admiral Kitten for trainer Mike Maker, while Garrett Gomez is here to pilot Procurement.
AUBURN, Wash. – I Keep Saying, disqualified from an impressive victory in his last start, will try to make amends Saturday in the feature race at Emerald Downs. A $25,000 claimer for older horses who have yet to win twice, the feature is the eighth of nine races on a program that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
MIAMI – Csaba may have stepped a bit out of his class when finishing fifth earlier this winter in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap. But the multiple graded stakes winner will be back in the proper element and is strictly the one to beat when he returns from a well-deserved vacation Saturday at Calder in the $75,000 Memorial Handicap.
