OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Kathleen O., who won her first four races before finishing fifth in the Kentucky Oaks in May, will return to the races in Friday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Comely Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.
The Comely, run at 1 1/8 miles, is one of four stakes on Friday’s nine-race card, which follows four dark days at Aqueduct. There is no racing - or training - scheduled for Thanksgiving Day.
The Southern California-based trainer Peter Miller plans to have a division of horses this winter at Oaklawn Park. The Hot Springs, Ark., track opens Dec. 9.
“We’re going to bring a small string after the Del Mar meet finishes up, and we’re looking forward to it,” Miller said last week. “I think we’ll have right about 15 horses there.”
The current Del Mar meet closes Dec. 4.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Saturday was the last day turf works were offered at Belmont Park for the season and trainer Christophe Clement and Shug McGaughey took advantage, each working five horses over the inner grass course.
Among Clement’s quintet was Pizza Bianca, the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, who breezed a half-mile in 50.09 seconds in company with Soldier Rising. Pizza Bianca, who failed to reach her reserve at the Fasig-Tipton November sale on Nov. 6, is being considered for a start in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar on Dec. 4, Clement said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Trevor McCarthy will be sidelined through at least the end of 2022 after suffering a broken collarbone as well as a pelvic injury after being involved in a spill during the running of Friday’s sixth race at Aqueduct.
McCarthy stayed overnight at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and was hopeful of being discharged sometime Saturday, according to his agent Joey Migliore.
Migliore confirmed the broken collarbone and said while McCarthy did suffer a pelvic injury the extent of it is not yet clear.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A day of inscrutable results at Aqueduct on Thursday led to carryovers in the late pick-5 and the pick-6 for Friday.
The carryover in the late pick-5 is $172,117. The pick-6 carryover is $25,215. There are 10 races Friday, so the late pick-5 starts in race 6 (2:16 p.m. Eastern). The late pick-5 is a 50-cent minimum wager. The pick-6 begins on race 5 (1:46) and is a $1 minimum wager.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Gustavo Rodriguez on Sunday will begin serving a seven-day suspension handed him by the New York Gaming Commission after one of his horses tested for on overage of the therapeutic medication Phenylbutazone (bute) in a race at Aqueduct.
Rodriguez, who waived his right of appeal and who was also fined $1,000, will be eligible to return on Nov. 27.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer John Terranova could be spending the holidays on the road.
Freedom Trail, unbeaten in two starts, both on turf, is likely to make his dirt debut in the Grade 2, $400,000 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs on Nov. 26 - two days after Thanksgiving - said Terranova.
Midnight Stroll, the Delaware Oaks winner who recently finished third in the Grade 2, $350,000 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland, could start in the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
On Oct. 29, the John Toscano barn celebrated a victory by Runninsonofagun in the Grade 3 Bold Ruler at Aqueduct. The next morning, the barn mourned the loss of Blewitt, an 8-year-old gelding who had gotten loose while on the Belmont training track and wound up getting injured in the barn area and had to be euthanized.
“We went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows,” said John Toscano III, son of and assistant to his father. “That was absolutely sick. He was one of my favorites. What a shame.”
Trainer Roger Attfield will have his first starter at Aqueduct in three years when he ships Churchtown in from Woodbine for Saturday’s $135,000 Gio Ponti Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Churchtown, a gelding by Air Force Blue is coming off a neck loss to Luckman in the Toronto Cup at Woodbine on Sept. 10. Prior to that, he won an allowance on synthetic and one on turf, also at Woodbine.
