Jockey Flavien Prat has been booked to ride Country Grammer in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup on May 29 at Santa Anita, the first time he has ridden the multiple stakes winner in the United States since a victory in the same race in 2021.
Prat rode Country Grammer to a second-place finish in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia in February 2022. Country Grammer has since been ridden by Frankie Dettori, John Velazquez, and Juan Hernandez.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Offlee Naughty followed his win in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on April 8 with an equally sharp effort in Saturday’s Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf.
Those races are a prologue to a proposed two-race turf stakes campaign this summer – the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano Stakes at about 1 3/4 miles at Santa Anita on June 18, and the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on Sept. 2.
“There is a lot of upside here,” trainer Michael McCarthy said Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The two-time Grade 1 winner Dr. Schivel returned from a layoff of more than 13 months to easily beat two rivals in an allowance race at Santa Anita on Saturday, a victory that in one regard took the 5-year-old’s career to a new level.
Dr. Schivel ran six furlongs in 1:09.19, earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 105.
The win served as a prep for the Grade 2 True North Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park on June 10. The $250,000 True North will be on the undercard of the Belmont Stakes, and is expected to draw a strong field of sprinters.
Lord Miles breezed four furlongs in 49.50 seconds late Friday morning at Palm Meadows, his first work since being scratched from the Kentucky Derby by Churchill Downs officials following the sudden deaths of two of his stablemates in races run at the track during the first two cards of the current meeting.
Lord Miles, who earned his way into the Derby lineup by virtue of his upset victory in the Grade 2 Wood, shipped back to South Florida earlier this week along with the rest of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.’s horses who were stabled at Churchill Downs at the time of the incidents.
BetMakers, the fixed-odds betting partner of Monmouth Park in New Jersey, launched a mobile betting app on Thursday for making fixed-odds wagers on horseracing tracks in the U.S., limited to New Jersey residents, the company said.
Jockey Irving Orozco is aiming for an early summer return to riding after sustaining fractured ribs and a punctured lung when he was unseated at Golden Gate Fields on April 29.
Orozco was hospitalized for five days following an incident in which Crazy Dreams sustained a fatal leg injury in the Lost in the Fog Stakes for sprinters. Orozco was under observation at a hospital for blunt chest trauma and broken and bruised ribs.
The three-time stakes winner Senor Buscador will start at 1 1/4 miles for the first time in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 29, a chance to test the 5-year-old’s ability against some of California’s leading older horses.
Trained by Todd Fincher for Joe Peacock, Senor Buscador has had mixed results in two starts this year. Senor Buscador won the minor Curribot Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Sunland Park on March 5, and was a troubled fourth in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap at 1 1/8 miles on April 22.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Several riders are serving days for penalties assessed to them by the stewards for careless riding during the Aqueduct meet.
Jockeys Dylan Davis and Samy Camacho were suspended by the stewards for careless riding, as it related to the $200,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Stakes on April 22 at Aqueduct. Davis rode Lifetime of Chance to a neck victory over Bank Frenzy, ridden by Camacho.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In 2021, the Parx Racing-based Beren won two stakes at Belmont Park, the Gold Fever and the off-the-turf Paradise Creek.
Saturday, he returns to Belmont for the Grade 3, $175,000 Runhappy Stakes scheduled for six furlongs on dirt. Beren, trained by Butch Reid, comes into the Runhappy off a third-place finish in the Page McKenney Stakes at Parx. In that race, he was beaten three-quarters of a length by Twisted Ride, who was supplemented to this race. Twisted Ride has won four consecutive races for trainer Michael Moore.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Nine 3-year-olds were entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes, but there does not appear to be an obvious favorite.
Trainer Todd Pletcher entered the pair of Classic Catch and Go Soldier Go. Classic Catch finished fifth in the Wood Memorial, rallying from 10 lengths back to finish 5 1/2 lengths behind Lord Miles. Pletcher is adding blinkers to Classic Catch’s equipment.
