Mike Smith will ride Executiveprivilege when she starts in the $500,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes on Dec. 8, replacing regular rider Rafael Bejarano.
Trainer Bob Baffert said on Wednesday that some leading mounts in his stable will be spread around to other riders. In recent months, Baffert has extensively used Bejarano. In the Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita on Nov. 2-3, Baffert and Bejarano were winless in four races as a team, including with two favorites.
MIAMI - One of the stars of Saturday's Florida Million Day card at Calder was My Pal Chrisy, who successfully and impressively defended her title in the Elmer Heubeck Distaff Handicap with a 7 1/4-length victory over Flying Trip for owner-trainer Padarath Lutchman.
My Pal Chrisy's form had tailed off following her three-length win in the 2011 Heubeck, but she's been back on her best game since returning to Calder on a regular basis during the second half of her campaign.
MIAMI – Close It Out, the only horse currently campaigned at Calder by longtime Thoroughbred owner and breeder Sam Rogers Jr., added another chapter to the family legacy when he rallied from last to upset last Saturday’s Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap.
Big, well-matched fields have been entered for the twin turf stakes that will anchor a 11-race card when the first and only Downs After Dark program of the fall meet is run at Churchill Downs on Saturday.
Twelve 3-year-old fillies are entered in the Grade 2, $175,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes, with Centre Court likely to be a slight favorite with Julien Leparoux aboard. Centre Court most recently was second to Dayatthespa in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on the Keeneland turf.
They have the same trainer, are starting their careers at virtually the same time of their lives, and both have avid followings.
There is no way around it. All eyes will be on Zenyatta’s younger half-sister, the first-time starter Eblouissante, when she makes her career debut in the fourth race on Friday at Betfair Hollywood Park.
“We’re looking at her as another first-time starter, trying to at least,” trainer John Shirreffs said.
Shirreffs, who became nationally famous as Zenyatta’s trainer, knows that will not be easy.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pender Harbour missed last Saturday’s Autumn Handicap but his trainer, Mike DePaulo, had hoped that his stable star could close out his campaign in the Dec. 2 Sir Barton.
Instead, Pender Harbour has gone to Woodlands Farm, where he has spent each winter since coming to the racetrack, and will not see action again this season.
“He has a little bone bruise,” said DePaulo, who conditions Pender Harbour for owners Denny Andrews, Sandra Lazaruk, and Bob and Roberta Giffin. “We’re just going to give him a break, and have him niece and fresh for next year.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Buff Bradley said Wednesday at Churchill Downs that he is mulling the possibility of running Groupie Doll against males in the Grade 1, $350,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, depending on what the weight assignments look like.
Bradley said he has little to lose by trying male rivals in the Nov. 24 Cigar Mile, given that Groupie Doll surely clinched a 2012 Eclipse Award for top female sprinter with another convincing triumph Nov. 3 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It had been a while between proverbial drinks for Noble’s Promise. The millionaire 5-year-old lost 11 straight races before finally getting back to the winner’s circle last month at Keeneland, and now he is looking to end his career on a modest winning streak.
By the first of April, Willyconker had raced four times in 2012, won a Grade 1 race, and was worn out.
“He got a little weak on us and we needed to kick him out,” trainer Doug O’Neill said earlier this week.
Willyconker got his break. He returns to racing on Friday at Betfair Hollywood Park in a $56,000 allowance race over six furlongs on turf.
While O’Neill has hesitations about the distance, he expects a bright performance for Willyconker in advance of the 2012-13 meeting at Santa Anita.
