HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Taptowne was a powerful allowance winner last month at Oaklawn, and on the strength of his score over graded stakes winners Sabercat and Win Willy, he is a candidate for the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 13.
“Our intention is to run him in the race here,” trainer Tim Glyshaw said Wednesday. “We’ve pretty much extinguished his allowance conditions.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tiz a Minister earned a start in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby when he closed from last of eight in the final half-mile of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 9 to finish a competitive third.
That performance has left owner Stephen Young of nearby Monrovia, Calif., in an unusual position – starting his first horse in a Grade 1, and in California’s top race for 3-year-olds.
“This is big time,” he said.
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Racing fans accustomed to visiting Keeneland as a seasonal rite of passage this April will find their travel to and from the track affected by a major Kentucky Transportation Cabinet resurfacing project on U.S. 60 (Versailles Road) scheduled to last until Oct. 31.
Work began in February on a 6.4-mile section of U.S. 60 starting at New Circle Road in Lexington, just east of Keeneland, and ending at the Blue Grass Parkway connection in Woodford County near Versailles. Most of the six-lane segment of U.S. 60 that runs past both of
LEXINGTON, Ky. – As if any meet at Keeneland has ever been found wanting for added oomph, here’s a little something extra for the 2013 spring meet: Wise Dan will make his first start since being named the 2012 Horse of the Year, a coup indeed for a track the popular gelding has always called home and where an uncommon enthusiasm for racing reigns regardless of who might be running.
The owner of Assiniboia Downs, the Manitoba Jockey Club, is suing the provincial government, and a judicial review is scheduled to begin April 26.
The province contributes as much as $10 million annually to Assiniboia Downs, and the MJC claims the province could withdraw as much as 50 percent of those subsidies in its April 16 budget and remove the 140 video lottery terminals from the racetrack. Such a move would bankrupt the MJC and pave the way for a takeover by the Red River Exhibition Association, which is looking to take over the racetrack property, valued at $70 million.
Jerry Hissam, the agent who represented jockey Calvin Borel through three Kentucky Derby wins and a Horse of the Year campaign with Rachel Alexandra, said on Wednesday that he has retired. Hissam, 68, has been battling an infection in his pancreas since January, and said he has lost 71 pounds.
“I’m improving, but I’m still stuck at home,” he said Wednesday. “I’m retired.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flashback, the beaten favorite in the San Felipe Stakes last month, and Hear the Ghost, who upset him in that race, drew the inside two post positions in a field of nine on Wednesday for the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – As happens every April in North America nowadays, the 3-year-old division is being described as “wide open,” with the consensus being that an indefinable number of colts and geldings have a so-called “decent shot” at winning the Kentucky Derby. The 3-year-old filly division often is addressed the same way in the run-up to the Kentucky Oaks.
ARCADIA, Calif. – In 2012, Nobilis finished second in a Group 3 race in France. That form has left trainer Simon Callaghan optimistic that she can become a stakes winner in California this year.
Friday at Santa Anita, Nobilis makes her U.S. debut in a first-level, optional $40,000 claimer over 1 1/4 miles on turf. Owned by Michael Tabor, Nobilis drew the rail in a field of eight.
“She has pretty good form,” Callaghan said. “She’s a nice filly. I think she’ll stay a little farther. She could run in the mile-and-a-half races against the boys as she gets older.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita officials were finalizing plans on Wednesday morning to conduct surveillance on the runners for Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby for the 72 hours in advance of the race, track president George Haines said on Wednesday.
The surveillance period was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in the respective Santa Anita or Hollywood Park stables of the nine entrants, he said. Security staff will record the activity of those horses.
“This is similar to what we do for the Breeders’ Cup races,” Haines said.
