LEXINGTON, Ky. - Two down, one to go.
Four days after owner Ken Ramsey set the record for wins at the spring meet, his principal trainer, Mike Maker, set the record for training victories at the spring meet when winning the first race at Keeneland on Wednesday. It was the trainer’s 17th win at the meet.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Trainer Steve Asmussen will attack the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park on Saturday with two horses, Master Rick and Prayer for Relief, because he feels the distance is the right fit for both runners. A field of six was drawn Wednesday for the one-mile stakes.
Master Rick enters the Texas Mile off a 2 1/4-length win at the distance in a second-level allowance at Oaklawn on Feb. 28. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 94, which is the best last-race number in Saturday’s field.
ELMONT, N.Y. – If Flat Out is going to regain his best form, then where else but Belmont Park to try and do it?
Winless in two starts this year, Flat Out returns to Belmont for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Westchester Stakes, the first graded stakes event of the 56-day Belmont spring/summer meet that begins Friday.
AUBURN, Wash. – Two prominent jockeys, including Emerald Downs’ all-time leading rider, will be absent when racing resumes Friday with a seven-race card at 6:45 p.m. Pacific.
Gallyn Mitchell, a fixture at Emerald for each of the track’s first 17 seasons, had a heart attack Monday at his home near Enumclaw, Wash., and later underwent emergency surgery at MultiCare Auburn Medical Center. Denise Mitchell, his wife and agent, told track officials that Mitchell was in good spirits and seeing visitors Tuesday while still in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A field of nine 3-year-olds is set to clash Saturday night at Churchill Downs in the Derby Trial, the traditional spring-meet opener that may or may not yield a final starter for the 139th Kentucky Derby a week later.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan, the reigning Horse of the Year, worked Wednesday morning over the Keeneland main track, going five furlongs in 59.60 seconds, the fastest time at that distance among 14 workouts that morning.
The Wednesday work was the first for Wise Dan since he won the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland on April 12, defeating four other horses.
“I just wanted to work him one time and see how he worked and how his fitness level was,” trainer Charles LoPresti said. “He worked really good today.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Sugarinthemorning has started 11 times since she last won, in the Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar in July 2011.
But it is not trainer Ron McAnally’s habit to give up on a horse just because of a losing streak. Last Sunday, McAnally, 80, won the $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita for the third time in his career with Interaction, who was winless in seven starts since last summer.
[bc_video_id:290201:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The rains came a little later than expected at Churchill Downs on Wednesday. But once they arrived, shortly before 8 a.m, it rained in earnest for the remainder of the morning, dramatically altering the condition of the racetrack by the time it reopened for the special Kentucky Derby/Oaks training session 30 minutes later.[:slideshow-right:]
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It wasn’t particularly surprising to see Bob Tiller get off to a hot start on opening the weekend, leading the standings with four winners from seven starters after two days.
But Darwin Banach, a trainer who came into the 2013 meeting well beneath the radar, also celebrated the return of Thoroughbred racing in fine style with three winners and a third-place finish from just four runners.
