ARCADIA, Calif. – The countdown to the Breeders’ Cup kicked into a higher gear at Santa Anita on Saturday morning, as two dozen prospects for the 15 BC races here Nov. 2 and 3 worked, including such notable names as BC winners Amazombie and California Flag, trainer Dale Romans’s murderer’s row of Dullahan, Little Mike, and Shackleford, and six Todd Pletcher trainees, the most impressive being Love and Pride.
ELMONT, N.Y. – With the main track virtually under water and the training track rated as “muddy” when first opening at 5:30 a.m., workout activity Saturday at Belmont Park was limited to little more than a dozen horses.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Through the first half-mile mile of Saturday’s $150,000 Iroquois Stakes, Willet appeared to be struggling over the sealed muddy Belmont Park surface.
Thankfully, there were still three furlongs remaining to run.
Approaching the quarter pole, Willet began to find her stride and after being tipped four wide by jockey Rajiv Maragh turning for home, Willet stormed home to win the Iroquois by 9 1/4 lengths.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s Tricky, the quirky multiple Grade 1 winner, suffered an injury to her hind ankle and has been retired, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Saturday.
She had been pointing to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
McLaughlin said that It’s Tricky came out of a Thursday workout at Belmont Park with the beginnings of a condylar fracture to her right hind ankle. She will not need surgery.
“She will be retired and sent home,” said McLaughlin, who trained It’s Tricky for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Hunters Bay, who has been battling a foot bruise which he suffered during his second-place finish in the Woodbine Mile, will not be making the trip to Santa Annita for the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
“He’s almost perfect, but you obviously need to be perfect to tackle Wise Dan,” said Reade Baker, who trains the Kentucky-homebred 5-year-old Hunters Bay for Frank Stronach.
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan, the star gelding who has won 5 of 6 races this year and might be one of the heaviest favorites in any of the upcoming Breeders’ Cup races, had his final workout for the BC Mile when breezing five furlongs before dawn Saturday over the Polytrack surface at Keeneland.
She’s All In was the most dominant winner on the $1 million Oklahoma Classics card at Remington Park on Friday night, when she drew clear by seven lengths in the $145,000 Distaff. It was her third consecutive win in the race, and with the victory she pushed her career earnings past $750,000.
The Classics program, which featured eight divisional stakes for horses bred in Oklahoma, has been run for 20 years and it ranks as one of the richest cards of the meet.
Madame Cactus, who was a maiden winner last month in Southern California, conquered both two turns and stakes competition in her first attempt Friday night in the $150,000 My Trusty Cat at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. She rallied for a two-length win in the opening-night stakes that served as the local prep for the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess on Nov. 17.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Upsets large and small were the rule Friday in hotly contested split divisions of the Grade 3 Pin Oak Valley View Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the Keeneland turf.
In the first division, Angel Terrace and Miss Cato rallied to engage each other in a fierce duel for the final sixteenth of a mile, with Angel Terrace, a 27-1 outsider, winning by maybe two or three inches. Jimmy Graham was aboard for the Augustin Stable ownership and Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard. The winner returned $57.60 after finishing the 1 1/16-mile distance in 1:44.77.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The likelihood that California’s rules regarding the administration of Lasix will be changed to allow only non-practicing veterinarians, not a horse’s personal vet, to give Lasix shots on race day moved one step closer on Thursday. The state racing board, at its monthly meeting, posted the rule change for a 45-day notice.
