LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Wesley Ward is looking for the same kind of race that Gypsy Robin ran in the spring at Keeneland when the 3-year-old filly returns as part of a terrific lineup Saturday in the Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run Stakes.
“I think we’ve got her pretty sharp right now,” Ward said, referring to a five-furlong breeze Tuesday in 1:01 over the Keeneland Polytrack.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Winning two Super Bowls in five years as the head coach of the New York Giants made Bill Parcells the king of New York sports. Saturday, at Belmont Park, Parcells will attempt to claim his biggest prize in the sport of kings.
Parcells, 71, is the owner of Saratoga Snacks, a 3-year-old New York-bred who will be among the favorites for the $250,000 Empire Classic, the centerpiece on Saturday’s 10-race New York Showcase Day program, which features seven stakes for horses bred in New York.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Coming off a disappointing eighth-place finish in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup three weeks ago, Hymn Book seeks some class relief when he starts in Friday’s $85,000 Frank “Pancho” Martin Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Frank Martin, named for the Hall of Fame trainer who died in July, is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over the main track. It drew graded stakes winner Rule and the Brazilian-bred Group 1 winner Xin Xu Lin, who makes his North American debut for Godolphin.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The turf racing season here, originally scheduled to end Oct. 28, has been extended by one week, through Nov. 4.
“We talked about it, and we’re going to try it,” said Steve Lym, racing secretary and a director of racing for the Woodbine Entertainment Group. “The weather gets dodgy at this time of year, but the turf course seems to be holding up.
“The turf course had a planned vacation this summer to get it in better condition, and it seems to have worked. We want to get all the use we can out of it.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Grade 1-placed Excaper should be favored in Friday’s Woodbine headliner, but the task at hand may not be easy, with the likes of Valentino Beauty and others in the second-level optional claimer on the grass.
Excaper, a 3-year-old trained by Ian Black, had a promising 2-year-old campaign. He ran second in two important turf stakes, the Grade 3 Summer and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill.
STICKNEY, Ill. – Laboratory tests performed on two sick horses that since have died at Hawthorne Race Course have confirmed an outbreak of a neurologic strain of the equine herpesvirus, known as EHV-1.
All sick horses remain confined to one barn on the Hawthorne backstretch, and the Illinois State Department of Agriculture has decided that the track will be permitted to continue its race meet without restrictions on horses coming into and out of Hawthorne.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - After 24 3-year-old fillies crammed the entry box, Keeneland racing officials decided to run the Grade 3 Pin Oak Valley View Stakes in two divisions Friday, with each split worth $125,000 (instead of the $150,000 it would have been without splitting). They will be run as the seventh and ninth of 10 races, with both being part of the $200,000 late pick four (races 7-10) guaranteed pool.
Three more horses have become seriously ill in a barn on the Hawthorne backstretch, bringing to five the total number of animals afflicted with an as-yet undiagnosed sickness, according to Dr. Dawn Folker-Calderon, the state-employed veterinarian at Hawthorne.
But as of Tuesday afternoon the outbreak remained confined to horses stabled in Barn A, suggesting isolation protocols introduced Sunday might have kept the illness from jumping into Hawthorne’s general horse population.
Monument, winner of the California Cup Juvenile last Saturday, will not be challenging the division’s top runners this year.
Trainer John Sadler has two races at the autumn meeting at Hollywood Park under consideration for Monument, who won his first stakes for owners Lee and Susan Searing in the Cal Cup Juvenile.
Monument will be pointed to the $100,000 Real Quiet Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on Nov. 10 and the $200,000 King Glorious Stakes over seven furlongs for California-breds on Dec. 16.
