ELMONT, N.Y. – Led by upset winner Verstappen, four of the top six finishers from the Grade 2 Elkhorn on April 22 at Keeneland will meet again in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park.
Verstappen, trained by Brendan Walsh, beat Red Knight by a head in the Elkhorn, run at 1 1/2 miles. Channel Maker, the turf champion of 2020, finished fourth, while Howe Street, the 2-1 Elkhorn favorite, ran sixth.
The stakes schedule for the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif., this summer has been enhanced to include the $150,000 Pleasanton Mile, a newly created race that will be the richest in the history of the Northern California fair circuit.
The Pleasanton Mile will be run on July 9 for 3-year-olds and up at a mile and 70 yards. The race is part of the closing day of the county fair’s four-week meeting, which begins on June 16. The July 9 program will include the $75,000 Everett Nevin Stakes for 2-year-olds at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Hong Kong Harry, second in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs last Saturday, is among three expected starters for trainer Phil D’Amato in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita on May 29.
D’Amato has won two of the last five runnings of the Shoemaker Mile, the track’s richest race for turf milers. The winner of the Shoemaker Mile receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
Two Phil’s, runner-up in the Kentucky Derby, will skip the Preakness, his trainer Larry Rivelli said Tuesday.
The news was first reported by Jim O’Donnell in the (Chicago) Daily Herald.
Rivelli said Tuesday the two-week turnaround from the Derby to the Preakness was “way too soon.”
“He came back great, but it’s 11 days from today,” Rivelli said Tuesday morning by phone from Hawthorne. “He just got home, he settled in, looks great, but it’s way too soon. There’s no pressure to do it. I might not have run even if he won, which would have been a bigger deal.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kentucky Derby Day 2023 will be easy to remember for Abdul Alsagoor.
For the first time in his career, the apprentice jockey had a three-win day at Santa Anita.
“I hoped I would have a good day and I proved it,” Alsagoor said late Saturday afternoon. “It’s wonderful to get the right opportunities. The trainers had faith in me.”
Despite two comprehensive losses in recent months, the Northern California stakes winner Chase the Chaos will be sent to Pimlico for the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes on May 20.
Chase the Chaos will be a longshot, which is not an issue for trainer Ed Moger Jr.
“We’re going in with no expectations,” Moger said Sunday. “He’ll be 99-1.”
Churchill Downs begins its post-Kentucky Derby season with an eight-race “Twilight Thursday” card with a first post of 5 p.m.
There are a pair of allowance-level events on the card, including a $127,000 conditioned allowance for 3-year-olds and up going 1 3/16 miles on the main track. Giant Game, who first got notice when third in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for Dale Romans, comes in off back-to-back runner-up efforts at Gulfstream. He is stretching out after both those efforts came at a mile.
Practical Move is recovering from an illness that prevented a start in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and will be back at trainer Tim Yakteen’s base at Santa Anita as early as the middle of this week.
The winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 8, Practical Move was withdrawn from the Kentucky Derby because of an elevated temperature last Thursday.
Yakteen said that Practical Move’s condition is improving and that the colt will be flown to California as early as Wednesday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Although run on a synthetic track, Turfway Park’s signature Kentucky Derby prep has become an enticing spot for horsemen since Churchill Downs Inc., the parent company for both the Florence, Ky., track and the flagship Louisville location, purchased Turfway in 2019 and increased the qualifying point value of the race to 100 for the winner. Now, the race’s form is holding its own.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Saturday’s undercard stakes at Churchill Downs had major implications to the developing field for the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 10 at Belmont Park – a race that has long been crucial to championship aspirations.
In its last 10 runnings, the race has been won by divisional champions Honor Code (2015 older dirt male), Mitole (2019 male sprinter), and Flightline (2022 Horse of the Year, older dirt male).
