OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The first step in trainer Chad Brown’s plan to keep his top fillies and mares separated on potentially the road to the Breeders’ Cup worked to perfection when Search Results won last Saturday’s Grade 3 Locust Grove Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths at Churchill Downs.
Brown chose to run Search Results in the Locust Grove so he could run his 3-year-old filly Randomized, winner of the Grade 1 Alabama last month, in the Grade 2 Beldame versus older females at Aqueduct on Oct. 8.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Ways and Means came out of her runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes on Sept. 3 at Saratoga with an injury and will not race again this year, trainer Chad Brown said Wednesday.
Ways and Means appeared to clip heels with the ultimate winner Brightwork early down the backside in the Spinaway. Ways and Means was beaten a half-length by Brightwork while finishing 6 1/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Wonder Ride.
Brown said Ways and Means took a chip off her right ankle.
Prominent California trainers Carla Gaines and Peter Miller are in the midst of seven-day suspensions for medication violations found in their runners earlier this year, according to rulings recently published by the Horseracing and Welfare Integrity Unit.
Gaines and Miller had horses test positive for the tranquilizer acepromazine. They were each fined $1,000 and suspended one week. The suspensions end on Friday.
Gaines was cited for a positive found in a post-workout test taken on July 14 from Summer Lake, who has not raced since May 2022.
Santa Anita is adding an all-turf $3 pick three to its betting menu for the autumn meeting from Sept. 29 through Nov. 5, one of two significant changes for bettors for the six-week season.
The all-turf pick three will be offered on the final three grass races daily, weather permitting, and has a minimum bet far more expensive than the 50-cent pick three bets offered on a daily basis.
Arabian Knight, the game winner of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sept. 2, will make his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 4, trainer Bob Baffert said on Wednesday.
“I’ll probably go straight to the Breeders’ Cup,” Baffert said.
Baffert has the option of a local prep with Arabian Knight in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita on Sept. 30. Arabian Knight has not had a workout since the Pacific Classic, which he won by a neck over fellow 3-year-old Geaux Rocket Ride after a duel through the final furlong.
Churchill Downs began enforcing new claiming rules at the start of its meet last week that requires trainers to have made a start in Kentucky since July 7 before being allowed to submit a claim on behalf of an owner.
The requirement is one of three new “house rules” that trainers must agree to as part of their participation at the meet. The rules are designed to limit claiming activity from out-of-state trainers and keep horses within the state after being claimed, at a time when Churchill-owned tracks now dominate the year-round live racing calendar in Kentucky.
A California real-estate developer has backed out of a potential deal to purchase Turf Paradise in Phoenix, and the track will be closed by its current owner as of Sept. 30, a decision that will lead to the unavailability of racing signals throughout a network of offtrack betting parlors in the state on Oct. 1, according to officials in Arizona.
Saudi Crown, beaten a nose in both the Grade 3 Dwyer and Grade 2 Jim Dandy, drew post 3 in a field of 11 and will likely be a solid favorite in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby scheduled for 1 1/8 miles at Parx Racing.
Jockey Diego Herrera escaped injury when he was unseated in the stretch of Sunday’s sixth race at Los Alamitos.
Herrera said Monday morning that he plans to resume riding Friday.
Herrera was unseated when King Heat veered in sharply in the stretch at a point where the inside has a temporary rail guiding runners past the gap where the turn of the small five-eighths mile track used for nighttime racing meets the stretch.
Jockey Edwin Maldonado became the winningest daytime Thoroughbred rider at Los Alamitos with his victory on Classymademoiselle on Sunday.
Maldonado, 40, won his 128th race at Los Alamitos, surpassing the previous mark held by the retired Martin Pedroza, who most recently rode at Los Alamitos in 2019. Pedroza also had wins from the Orange County Fair meetings at Los Alamitos, which ended in 1991.
