Flights bringing horses to Louisiana for the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot and Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess are due to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to officials with Tex Sutton Forwarding Company. The horses are scheduled to fly into Lake Charles, La., which is about 30 miles from Delta.
The Jackpot and Princess head a card of eight stakes worth $2.2 million on Saturday, Nov. 17.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Scarlet Strike would have been up against in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – racing without Lasix on a speed-favoring track at Santa Anita.
Rather than subject the stretch-running filly to compromising conditions, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer postponed resumption of her fall campaign until Sunday, when Scarlet Strike returns as the favorite in the $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.
“We think she’s an improving horse that is going to do better as the distances get longer,” Hollendorfer said.
Gantry emerged from his 11th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint healthy and could defend his title in the $100,000 Thanksgiving Handicap on the opening-day card at Fair Grounds on Nov. 22, said his trainer, Ron Faucheux. Gantry is now based at the New Orleans track after spending the past several weeks at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup.
“We’re not going to rule it out,” Faucheux said. “It’s a possibility he would run in the Thanksgiving Handicap, or we would just wait until the next one, the Gaudin Memorial.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Trainer Graham Motion almost pulled off the training feat of 2012 last weekend, when Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom nearly won the Breeders’ Cup Mile in making his first start since February. Back home now in Maryland, Motion is gearing up for his next raid of Southern California, and while the stakes won’t be quite as high in a fortnight, Motion, again, will be a force to be reckoned with.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Al Stall Jr. would give somebody else a chance, but that would be against the spirit of competition – not to mention the rules of racing. Not only has Stall won with 7 of his first 11 starters to grab an early lead in the fall-meet trainer standings at Churchill, but he also won with 3 of his last 4 starters at the Keeneland meet. That’s a remarkable 10 for his last 15 in Kentucky.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Another Breeders’ Cup is in the books, and after catching their collective breath, horsemen are turning their attention to their next opportunities before the year is out.
One of those is trainer Mark Casse, who is eyeballing the showcase race of the Churchill Downs fall meet, the Grade 1 Clark Handicap on Nov. 23. Casse has as many as three horses as prospects for the $400,000 race, including two exiting the Nov. 2-3 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 30 days served recently and reluctantly by trainer Bret Calhoun came with certain ironies. The first is that he went on an island vacation that he never would have otherwise taken. The second is that the horse whose medication violation led to the penalty is among the first he will run since the suspension elapsed earlier this week.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Incredicat, who has been absent since tiring badly here in the Aug. 4 Seagram Cup, will be looking to get back into the swing of things when he returns to action Sunday.
Trained by Ian Black, Incredicat will be racing older rivals while competing under the second-level allowance condition in an optional $62,500 claimer.
“It’s a tough spot,” said Black, who trains Incredicat for David Willmot, John Fielding, and the Hat Trick Stable of Doug Murphy and partners. “I’m in here because the race is here. If it had been next week, I would have been happier.”
