Vahva continued a breakout season for trainer Cherie DeVaux with a gritty, half-length win in the Grade 2 Raven Run last Saturday at Keeneland. Vahva will look to put a bow on this season with one more outing against 3-year-olds in the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita.
“She’s good,” DeVaux said Sunday. “Right now, the goal is the La Brea.”
The Grade 1, $300,000 La Brea Stakes will be run at the same seven-furlong distance as the Raven Run on Dec. 26.
Exercise rider Alfredo Luevano had been part of the Los Alamitos backstretch community for only a few months before he died as a result of injuries sustained during morning training on Friday.
Luevano, 53, suffered a fatal injury when he was unseated while exercising a Quarter Horse filly. Details of the incident are unclear.
During the summer, Luevano was tipped by a friend that there was a demand for exercise riders at Los Alamitos. The job offer was too good to pass, according to his adult daughter, Lisbet Luevano.
California exercise rider Alfredo Luevano died Friday after sustaining injuries in a morning training accident on the Los Alamitos backstretch, the track announced Friday evening.
A native of Mexico, Luevano was 53.
Circumstances surrounding the accident were unclear late Friday afternoon. Luevano was aboard a horse trained by Mike Casselman when he was injured.
In a brief interview with Daily Racing Form on Friday, Casselman said he did not witness the incident.
Led by his Royal Ascot winning 2-year-old filly Crimson Advocate, trainer George Weaver sent out a quartet of Breeders’ Cup-bound horses for workouts over Saratoga’s Oklahoma turf course Friday morning.
Crimson Advocate, one of three horses Weaver is pointing to the Juvenile Turf Sprint, worked a half-mile in 49.92 seconds. Weaver’s other Juvenile Turf Sprint horses are No Nay Mets and Amidst Waves. No Nay Mets went a half-mile in 47.80 seconds, the fastest of 14 works at the distance, while Amidst Waves went an easy half-mile in 53.63 seconds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though he couldn’t completely beat the rain that fell Friday morning, trainer Chad Brown was able to get six potential Breeders’ Cup contenders their important workouts over a decent Belmont Park main track in preparation for the Nov. 3-4 event at Santa Anita.
Following a heavy rain shower, Zandon, the Grade 2 Woodward winner and live longshot for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, began the proceedings shortly after 6:30 a.m., going a half-mile in 49.66 seconds. He got his last quarter in 24.19 seconds and galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.40.
Fort Erie Racetrack concluded its season on Tuesday with increased handle numbers and a dramatic season-ending marathon race.
Total wagering for the meet topped $46.7 million, which was up 39 percent over the 2022 meet. On-track wagering reached $1.9 million, a three percent increase over 2022. The track’s signature race, the Prince of Wales Stakes, raked in a record-setting $1.05 million, and the total wagering for that card was a solid $3.48 million.
Jockey Gustavo Herrera underwent surgery Thursday to address a cracked tibia sustained in a Wednesday night riding accident at Remington Park.
“It went well,” agent Erik McNeil said of the surgery.
Herrera was injured when his mount in the fourth race, Princess Ball, flipped and landed on top of the rider leaving the tunnel area for the racetrack. Herrera was transported to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City, where he remained Thursday.
Lone Star Park’s racing schedule for next season will be similar to this year’s after the track received Texas Racing Commission approval for its 2024 calendar on Wednesday.
Lone Star will race 41 dates for Thoroughbreds from April 18-July 14. The track will race on a Friday through Sunday schedule most weeks of the meet. There is a special Monday card on May 27, and there are Wednesday and Thursday cards July 3-4. Lone Star opens on a Thursday, which is a longstanding tradition. There will be less Thursday cards than the 2023 meet, which featured 44 race dates.
Corey Lanerie earned the 5,000th win of his riding career on Wednesday at Keeneland, piloting I Feel the Need to a 3 1/2-length victory in a claiming race for trainer Chris Hartman.
Lanerie, 48, is the 38th North American jockey to reach the milestone. He had to wait a few weeks to join the club, after notching win No. 4,999 on Oct. 1 at Churchill Downs.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland will build a permanent structure overlooking its paddock and walking ring that will transform its main entrance and provide new dining, seating, and viewing areas, including a rooftop patio, the track announced on Wednesday.
