OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Kiaran McLaughlin said that Dance Card came out of her four-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Gazelle in good shape, but the trainer remains concerned about the filly’s tendency to drift in her races.
Dance Card has won four consecutive races, but she has drifted out significantly in her last three starts.
The Drifter was found to have sustained a knee injury after being pulled up during the running of the $100,000 Clever Trevor at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, according to trainer Cody Autrey. The Drifter is one of the top 2-year-olds in the Southwest, with two stakes wins for owner Charles Fletcher, including the Kip Deville at Remington in September. He was the favorite in the Clever Trevor and was cruising on the early lead in the Nov. 9 stakes when suddenly guided to the outside rail by regular rider Cliff Berry.
Jockey Don Simington on Monday said he hopes to return to riding toward the end of the Delta Downs meet that runs through March 23. Simington broke his collarbone in a spill at the Vinton, La., track on Oct. 20. He has since had surgery to stabilize the injury.
“It wasn’t going to heal the way it was,” said Simington, 49. “Most of the guys I know that have had [this type of] surgery are out three or four months. I hope to be back in that time frame. It’s been a month since the surgery. Hopefully, I’ll get back up and ride the last month of Delta.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Tom Bush was back at Belmont Park on Monday morning after catching the red-eye flight back from Southern California, where on Sunday his New York-bred Unbridled Command won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby.
“It was a big thrill,” Bush said. “He ran great. He looked like he had a chance on paper. They bet him late in the race.”
The win was the fifth straight for Unbridled Command, who won the Grade 3 Saranac at Saratoga in September and the Mohawk Stakes for New York-breds at Belmont in October.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Typically, racing at Aqueduct moves to the winterized inner track the Wednesday following Thanksgiving. However, with the holiday being so early on the calendar this year coupled with the trouble experienced last year on the inner track when 21 horses were euthanized, racing is scheduled to remain on the main track for the next two weeks.
Naturally, Mother Nature had a storm brewing for Tuesday, expected to bring a wintry mix to the metropolitan area, but nothing that is expected to hamper Wednesday’s nine-race program at the Big A.
Trainer Dale Romans said Monday that he plans to send a division of horses to Oaklawn Park for the meet that opens Jan. 11. He said it would be the first time he has had a stable based at the Hot Springs, Ark., track. Romans is making plans for a 20-horse division at Oaklawn.
“It’s a good fit for some of the horses,” he said Monday.
“It will be a mixed group of horses.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It was a tough weekend in what has otherwise been a terrific year for trainer Chad Brown.
On Saturday, at Aqueduct, he watched in person as his 2-year-old colt Normandy Invasion fell a nose short to Overanalyze in the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Perhaps the most compelling surprise from the highly eventful final weekend of the 21-day Churchill Downs fall meet was not the 30-1 upset by Keep Up in the River City Handicap on the closing-day program Sunday, but the relatively low Beyer Speed Figures recorded by the stakes performers on the Stars of Tomorrow card Saturday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Reade Baker, who celebrated a victory by Bear Tough Tiger in last Sunday’s Kennedy Road Stakes, sends out Khulna in Wednesday’s Woodbine feature, a seven-furlong Ontario-sired allowance.
Khulna capped his 2011 campaign with a fast (80 Beyer Speed Figure) score in a seven-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired nonwinners-of-two stock. He has made each of his four starts this year at Wednesday’s nonwinners-of-three level, races that were well spaced out.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – In the wake of sending out Bear Tough Tiger and Bear No Joke for a 1-2 finish here in Sunday’s Grade 3 Kennedy Road, trainer Reade Baker could not recall having furnished a similar stakes exacta during the course of his 101 previous career stakes victories.
It turned out that Baker’s memory was faulty as he won the 2006 Mazarine here with Coy Coyote and saddled runner-up A.P. Reality for different owners.
