The $100,000 Premiers and the Grade 3, $100,000 Ballerina at Hastings this Monday will take on a lot more significance than usual. As unlikely as it may seem, both races could end up being preps for Breeders’ Cup races.
Commander will take a shot in the Grade 2, $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon if he wins the Premiers. The connections of Class Included are looking at the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic if she runs well in the Ballerina.
Jockey Tyler Baze, who has not ridden since August 2011 because of substance abuse problems, returns to racing on Friday at Santa Anita, less than a month after being reinstated from suspension.
Baze began working horses in late September after being reinstated by the Los Alamitos stewards. Baze was suspended for circumstances stemming from a missed Breathalyzer test at Del Mar in September 2011.
Friday, Baze is booked to ride Roulette It Roll in the first race and Warren’s Sugarbuzz in the sixth race. He has four mounts on Saturday, and two mounts on Sunday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The brilliant 2-year-old Uncaptured will extend to 1 1/16 miles Sunday at Woodbine in the $200,000 Grey, a Grade 3 stakes that has been a springboard to good things for many top horses over the years.
Uncaptured is unbeaten in four starts, all for owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse. Since winning his debut in May, the Ontario-bred has won three sprint stakes, including the seven-furlong Swynford. His average Beyer Speed Figure for those three scores is a huge 91.
Turfway Park closed its 16-day fall meet Sunday with major decreases in business, part of it attributable to the cancellation of its entire stakes program.
A Thursday release from the northern Kentucky track showed that all-sources handle totaled nearly $20.5 million, down nearly 26 percent from comparable dates in 2011, when a 12-race card including the five-stakes Kentucky Cup series was part of a 16-day meet.
[bc_video_id:264567:]ELMONT, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher told his owners there could be days like this, when he has multiple runners in a race, meaning he could be a winner but his clients could still lose.
Saturday could be one of those days, as Pletcher sends out three – possibly only two – horses in the Grade 1, $400,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Champagne is a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to be run Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.
STICKNEY, Ill. – Quietly and out of the spotlight, first at Remington Park and now at Hawthorne Race Course, trainer Donnie Von Hemel is guiding Alternation to what he hopes will be a start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Karakorum Racing, the partnership company whose horses have been a staple of the claiming ranks in New York for 15 years, ceased operation in late August, one of the company’s trainers said on Thursday.
Jeff Odintz, who was the partnership’s primary trainer over the past several years, said that all of the Karakorum horses were transferred to trainer Enrique Hernandez at Finger Lakes at the end of August.
“It was kind of quick,” Odintz said. “I don’t know exactly whether the horses were sold or what, but all of them went to Hernandez. He’s now the owner.”
Ellafitz will be looking for her third win of the year, all for trainer Bob Baffert, in the $100,000 Mari Hulman George at Hoosier Park on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile George is for older fillies and mares and drew a field of nine. It is one of nine supporting stakes on Saturday’s Indiana Derby card.
