I’ll Have Another will be forced to make a subtle, but perhaps significant, equipment change when he tries to become racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner in the 144th Belmont Stakes on June 9, not because his connections want to, but because they are being required to do so by Belmont Park stewards.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Terri Pompay feared the worst when Zero Rate Policy hit the dirt while setting the pace in the Decathlon Stakes, the opening day feature at Monmouth Park.
One moment, the 4-year-old Zero Rate Policy, who took the Rumson Stakes here last summer, was leading the way as the 2-1 favorite. In the next instant, he was on the ground, triggering a four-horse pileup.
As she ran onto the track toward the chaos on the far turn, Pompay braced for disaster.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Apart will add blinkers Monday when he starts as part of an eight-horse field for the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap. Entries for the 1 1/16-mile race were taken Friday. The handicap is the richest offering of the meet at Lone Star Park.
[bc_video_id:252865:]ELMONT, N.Y. – It must be a competitive event when a horse who has won five straight races and what is equal to the highest last-out Beyer Speed Figure among the contenders could be the longest shot in the field.
Such is the case in Monday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap, which drew a solid six-horse field, including four Grade 1 winners – Caleb’s Posse, Jackson Bend, Shackleford, and To Honor Serve – as well as Caixa Eletronica, winner of the $1 million Charles Town Classic in his last start.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sunday’s Connaught Cup, a seven-furlong race that is the first turf stakes of the Woodbine meeting, has lured a competitive field of 11, and one horse who could be overlooked is Riding the River, a 5-year-old gelding trained by Dave Cotey.
“If he can regain his best form and get a good trip, he’ll be right there,” said Cotey, who also owns Riding the River in partnership with Hugh Galbraith and Jim McNair.
Unfortunately for Cotey, good trips and Riding the River were seldom mentioned in the same breath last year.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Phil Hall was encouraged enough by The Gov’s win in a mile and sixteenth open allowance race May 21 to give him a shot in the $50,000 River Rock Casino next Saturday. The River Rock is the first middle-distance stakes race at the meet and it will start separating which horses might be players in the Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby Sept. 9 and which ones will be looking for easier spots.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Chad Hoverson had a hard time choosing between riding Ouch or Gosailgo in a first-level allowance race for 3-year-old fillies that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew nine horses and it appears to be a wide-open event.
Ouch and Gosail both have good breeding and have shown a lot of potential.
Hoverson made the tough choice of riding Ouch. Frank Fuentes will ride Gosailgo.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stormy Lord goes for his second straight triumph in the $150,000 Connaught Cup Stakes Sunday at Woodbine. The seven-furlong turf sprint drew 10 others, and seems fairly wide open.
Stormy Lord put together a lucrative 2011 campaign, during which he won 4 of 7 starts and around $400,000. Aside from the Grade 2 Connaught Cup, he won the Labeeb Stakes, the Ontario Jockey Club Stakes, and the PTHA President’s Cup Stakes at Parx.
“He’s a very handy horse,” said trainer Ian Black. “He had a good season. He was in the right spots on the right day.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It isn’t often that Rusty Arnold runs a horse back in nine days – but it isn’t often that he has one throw his jockey at the start as the favorite, either.
A 3-year-old gelding named Southern Parkway did just that May 18 on the Churchill Downs turf course, spilling Jesus Castanon when stumbling badly at the break. The only one hurt was Castanon, who suffered fractures in two small bones in his left hand and is sidelined for about a month as a result.
