LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Perhaps the best of the four workouts that took place during the special Derby/Oaks training session here at Churchill Downs on Friday was turned in by the 3-year-old filly Rose to Gold. With Calvin Borel aboard, Rose to Gold breezed an easy-as-can-be four furlongs in 47.68 seconds before galloping out five-eighths in 1:00.27 and pulling up three-quarters in 1:13.37.
Justin Phillip wrapped up his perfect Oaklawn meet with a win in the Grade 3, $250,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 13, and now he has his sights set on Belmont Park. Trainer Steve Asmussen said the horse is being pointed toward the Grade 2, $400,000 True North Handicap, a six-furlong race on the Belmont Stakes undercard June 8.
“He’s had a little luck in a stakes on Belmont Day before,” Asmussen said.
Justin Phillip registered the most prestigious win of his career in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens on the Belmont Stakes undercard in 2011.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The female turf division in California gets a small boost Sunday at Betfair Hollywood Park, where eight fillies and mares race one mile in the Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap.
With local leaders Tiz Flirtatious and Lady of Shamrock waiting for the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on May 27, the $100,000 Wilshire offers a chance for a European upstart to win her first graded stakes and for a California veteran to return to form.
Jockey Luis Quinonez will be sidelined three or four months after sustaining two fractured vertebrae in a Tuesday morning spill at Churchill, according to agent Monty Penney.
Quinonez, 46, was astride a 5-year-old named Bid a Moon for trainer Lynn Whiting when the horse broke down during a workout. Bid a Moon, claimed off a win last month at Oaklawn Park for $30,000, had to be euthanized.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With rain predicted to fall this weekend at Churchill Downs, workouts for several contenders for the May 4 Kentucky Derby are being adjusted, with Falling Sky, among others, going out Friday, and trainer Todd Pletcher deciding to work the majority of his Derby, and all his Kentucky Oaks candidates, on Saturday now instead of Sunday.
AUBURN, Wash. – Jockeying for position in Emerald Downs’s handicap division begins in earnest Sunday when Winning Machine, runner-up in the 2012 Longacres Mile, tops a field of eight in a $21,000 allowance race at 5 1/2 furlongs. First post for the eight-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Nick Gonzalez will take three shots at Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Whimsical Stakes when he runs Evil Kitten, Man Stuff, and Starship Universe in the six-furlong dash for fillies and mares at Woodbine.
Evil Kitten and Man Stuff are both making their first start of the year and have been breezing together, according to Gonzalez.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Malcolm Pierce, after wintering at Fair Grounds and stopping over at the Keeneland meet, was back at Woodbine on Thursday.
Among Pierce’s charges who had arrived here before him was Up With the Birds, the Sam-Son Farm homebred 3-year-old colt who ran well in two starts south of the border and is targeting the $1 million Queen’s Plate here July 7.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Senor Rojo is probably going to get overlooked when he runs in the $50,000 George Royal at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong distance is the reason. Senor Rojo actually has a decent record sprinting, 2-2-4 from 9 career starts going 6 1/2 furlongs, but since he won the Grade 3 Premiers going 1 3/8 miles in 2010 and the $100,000 Speed to Spare going the same distance in 2011, he usually doesn’t attract much attention when he sprints.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Commander, who didn’t lose a race in Western Canada last year, will make his seasonal debut in the $50,000 George Royal Stakes at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up drew seven horses and headlines a strong eight-race card.
