ELMONT, N.Y. – Tony Dutrow wasn’t necessarily on board when his owners, on the eve of entry day, decided to run their New York-bred Giant Finish in the Kentucky Derby.
“My clients wish to race and obviously I’m going to honor their decision,” Dutrow said at the time.
Dutrow said he was admittedly surprised when Giant Finish beat half the field in finishing 10th in the Run for the Roses.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Coffee Clique was back on Polytrack last Sunday at Woodbine and ran her local record to 2 for 2 with a four-length victory in the Grade 3, $156,300 Selene Stakes.
Luis Contreras notched his second stakes win of the meeting. He had guided Coffee Clique to victory here in her debut last December and was in the irons when the filly breezed five furlongs in 1:00.20 last Wednesday.
ALTOONA, Iowa – With the highlight of this meet, the Iowa Festival of Racing, just more than a month away, Prairie Meadows cranks up its stakes calendar Friday evening with a pair of six-furlong sprints, the $60,000 Prairie Rose and the $60,000 Prairie Express.
The five fillies and mares in the Prairie Rose will be trying to establish their credentials for the $100,000 Saylorville on June 28. The Prairie Rose drew the Illinois-bred Missjeanlouise, the locally based Kentucky-bred Lulu Wong, and a trio of top Arkansas-breds, All About Allie, Believe Me, and Jan’s Perfect Star.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tom Amoss has been a man on the go. Late last week, the trainer traveled from Louisville to Baton Rouge to Baltimore, and by Tuesday night, there he was in some other spot, greeting two of his horses in the winner’s circle at Indiana Downs in the Indianapolis suburb of Shelbyville.
Jeannie Cook, a former exercise rider at Finger Lakes and daughter of retired jockey Robert Cook, finished second in a race for Arabians held last weekend at Newbury Racecourse in the United Kingdom.
The one-mile race for amateur female riders was part of an eight-race world-wide series for the 2013 HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship. The winners of each leg will advance to the finals in November in Abu Dhabi.
The tornado that ripped through Moore, Okla., at almost 200 miles an hour Monday claimed not only the lives of more than 20 adults and children, but it also wiped out the Celestial Acres Training Center, home to both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse operations, killing scores of horses.
The training center was in the direct path of the storm, bordering the southern part of Oklahoma City.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Patrick Husbands, who will be turning 40 on Wednesday, remained in a hospital on Tuesday after undergoing surgery the previous evening for broken bones suffered in a spill Monday at Woodbine.
The jockey was injured when his mount, A Tough Buck, collapsed just past the finish line in Monday’s fifth race.
“He’ll be out three to four months,” said jockey agent Gary Kemplen, who represents Husbands. “He fractured his tibia, and broke some other small bones in his leg.”
Coming out of a respectable fourth in the Westchester Stakes, Big Screen will get some class relief in Thursday’s $81,000 allowance/optional claiming feature.
Carded as race 2, the one-mile race with third-level conditions attracted four other older males, including 2012 Excelsior winner Marilyn’s Guy; Summer Sunset, who has won or placed in 7 of 8 starts since being claimed last spring; and Forward March, a $2 million colt who relished the slop here last June for Shug McGaughey.
Trainer Phil Gleaves returned to his native England earlier this month following the death of his father, but he’ll be back in Miami to saddle his top handicap performer, Csaba, in Saturday’s $75,000 Memorial Day Handicap.
Csaba has been idle since having his four-race winning streak snapped when finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 9. Gleaves had planned on blowing out Csaba for the Memorial Day Handicap on Tuesday, but was forced to scrap those plans after the track was inundated by rain the previous day and throughout the night.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Handicapping puzzles will be solved Thursday at Betfair Hollywood Park, where key starters throughout the card will be attempting something new – to launch careers, switch surfaces, change distances, and return from layoffs.
Well-regarded juveniles debut in race 2, a probable winner in race 3 will try grass, and the pacesetter in race 5 – Sweet Assay – has never run two turns. In race 7, juvenile graded stakes winners from last year try to resurrect their careers.
