INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela must meet with Betfair Hollywood Park stewards Scott Chaney, Kim Sawyer, and Tom Ward this week before he can resume riding after a self-imposed break because of weight issues.
Valenzuela, 49, has not ridden since May 19. He took off his single mount on May 20, saying he was having difficulty making riding weight.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Last Friday, trainer John Terranova and owner Samantha Regan teamed up for two winners on a nine-race Belmont Park card.
Thursday, Terranova and Regan, who races under the banner Newtown Anner Stud, send out an intriguing Irish import, Capeslew, in Belmont’s featured $77,000 first-level allowance race scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over the Widener turf course.
Trainer Bob Baffert said he also will take his time before figuring out what to do next with Contested, who went gate to wire on an uncontested lead to win Monday’s Grade 1 Acorn for 3-year-old fillies. Contested is owned by Jill Baffert, Bob’s wife.
“We’re not used to owning horses that good,” Bob Baffert said Tuesday from California. “We’re used to buying horses for $100,000 and selling them for $5,000.”
Contested, a daughter of Ghostzapper, has now won four consecutive races, ranging in distance from six furlongs to a mile.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he will wait a little while before deciding where next to run It’s Tricky, who won Monday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap by three-quarters of a length over Cash for Clunkers.
There isn’t a Grade 1 opportunity for It’s Tricky in New York until late August – either the seven-furlong Ballerina or the 1 1/8-mile Personal Ensign – at Saratoga.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Doug O’Neill wasn’t so much interested in talking to the connections of the recent horses who attempted – and failed – to win the Triple Crown. Instead, O’Neill wanted to talk someone who actually accomplished the feat.
So on Tuesday morning, about two hours after watching I’ll Have Another gallop a strong mile at Belmont Park, O’Neill had a little sit-down with Billy Turner, the trainer of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Shackleford appears to have found his niche in races run around one turn, trainer Dale Romans said Tuesday that he would not be opposed to running his Metropolitan Handicap winner two turns again in the future.
While Romans sent Shackleford to WinStar Farm on Tuesday morning for at least a week’s worth of rest and relaxation, he said races such as the Whitney and Woodward, both run at 1 1/8 miles worth $750,000 at Saratoga on Aug. 4 and Sept. 1, respectively, would be under consideration.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – There was a time when Dubawi Heights, the two-time Grade 1 winner, was considered by trainer Simon Callaghan to be the best turf female he has trained.
That was before Belle Royale’s rise in prominence in Southern California in the last two months.
Callaghan won the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes in 2011 with Dubawi Heights, who later won the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes and was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs.
Nates Mineshaft turned heads in April when he won the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap with a Beyer Speed Figure of 113. He backed the number up on Monday, when he was assigned a 107 for his 7 1/4-length win in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap.
“I thought he ran really well,” said Austin Smith, who trains Nates Mineshaft for Windy Hill Farm. “I was very happy, and he ran a good number. I’m tickled to death for the win, happy for the horse and happy for the owners.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dane Kobiskie has the focus and determination of a Marine. Medically discharged from that service branch in 1999 after breaking a leg outside of training, Kobiskie, now 33, has used those qualities to succeed as a trainer, first in Maryland and now in Kentucky.
“The goal from day one was to become a trainer,” said Kobiskie, who rode briefly as a jockey at Churchill Downs and Ellis Park in 2005 before moving to Maryland, where he began his training career in 2008.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Morning Line can be described in several ways – millionaire, multiple stakes winner, independent thinker.
Earlier this month, he displayed all those characteristics before a win in the Grade 2 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park. At post time, eight of the nine runners were assembled near the starting gate.
Morning Line was almost a quarter-mile away, at the top of the stretch, with jockey Joe Talamo off the horse.
