Ricardo Santana Jr., the leading rider at Oaklawn, and Luis Quinonez, the 2007 title winner in Hot Springs who also won five championships at Canterbury, will be based at Churchill Downs for the first time in their careers following the end of the Oaklawn meet April 13.
Santana, 19, had won 52 races at Oaklawn through Wednesday. Last year, he took the title at Delaware Park. The next stop will be the Churchill meet that opens April 27, said his agent, Ruben Munoz.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The team behind 2011 Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch will be moving one of its more promising 3-year-olds back to two turns Thursday in the eighth race at Oaklawn Park. Dipsy Drew will be making his second start of the year in the $65,000 optional claimer, to be run over 1 1/16 miles.
He is part of a field of 10 3-year-olds that includes Perfect Title, an impressive maiden special weight winner at Fair Grounds invading for trainer Dallas Stewart, and Chuck, who took a division of the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes last fall at Remington Park.
Kevin Scatuorchio was still a teenager in May of 2000 when he watched his father’s horse, More Than Ready, slip through an opening along the rail as the field for the 126th Kentucky Derby turned into the stretch at Churchill Downs.
After what he remembers being “a really hot day, a really long day,” Scatuorchio, his father, Jim, family and friends “had something to cheer about” as More Than Ready battled with Wheelaway for the lead in upper stretch.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Jockey Aaron Gryder has agreed to be first-call rider for owner Glen Todd at the Hastings meet that begins Saturday, April 13.
Gryder is currently based at Santa Anita. He began his career in 1987 and since then his mounts have earned more than $112 million. His biggest win came aboard Well Armed in the $6 million Dubai World Cup 2009.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Titletown Five ran the biggest race of his career at Churchill Downs, and he is headed there for his next start, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Tuesday. The horse is being pointed for the Grade 3, $175,000 Derby Trial, a one-turn mile for 3-year-olds April 27.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eleven 3-year-olds have been entered for the opening-day feature at the Keeneland spring meet, the $100,000 Transylvania Stakes, a Grade 3 turf race in which Fire Guard and Jack Milton figure among the top contenders in a well-matched field Friday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Although interest in the Santa Anita pick six has waned in the last five years, there is nothing like a carryover to generate buzz the first day of the racing week.
The pick six Thursday begins with an $88,542 carryover from $165,746 wagered on the bet Easter Sunday. The pots were bigger five years ago – the pick six on Easter in 2008 (March 23) handled $295,253.
Bettors on Thursday could wager a half-million dollars or more into the pick six (races 3-8), which includes a potential single in race 7.
Maryland horsemen will get three extra weeks to chase richer purses during the spring meet that opens Thursday at Pimlico.
Unlike the recent past, when the Preakness Stakes on the third Saturday in May marked closing day, Pimlico has expanded from 29 to 36 racing days. That stretches the meet to June 8, which coincides with the running of the last leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes. The longer meet also allows Pimlico to be open for the Memorial Day holiday.
With the return to turf racing this week, entries are up at Golden Gate Fields.
And Sunday’s first turf stakes race of the year, the $50,000-added Golden Poppy, should have a good-sized field. The 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares attracted 23 nominees.
Among those expected to run are the turf-loving multiple stakes winner Halo Dolly and her Jerry Hollendorfer-trained stablemate Lady Aspen, who has won two straight over the turf here.
Central Heat and Koby Jo also are considered probable for the race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Until this year, jockey Kevin Krigger has wanted nothing to do with Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May.
“I’ve avoided Derby Day,” he said. “I didn’t want to be there unless I was riding the race.”
Krigger may get his wish to attend America’s biggest race this year. He is the regular rider of Goldencents, the two-time stakes winner who starts as a contender in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday. A win or second by Goldencents will have Krigger booking a trip to Louisville, Ky., for the Kentucky Derby.
