HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Skelly will likely make one more appearance at the Oaklawn Park meet after winning his stakes debut last Saturday in the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday that Skelly is a candidate for the $150,000 Lake Hamilton, a six-furlong race for 4-year-olds and up May 6. It’s a new race on the stakes calendar and it comes on the final date of the season.
Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., has canceled racing from Monday through Wednesday due to a small area of the track surface that was contaminated, according to a statement provided to Daily Racing Form.
The statement reads: “Cherokee Casino Will Rogers Downs crews worked throughout the weekend to repair a small section of the track that was contaminated during a tractor fire late last week. In an effort to further optimize track conditions, live racing this week has been canceled.”
Will Rogers had stakes races scheduled for both Monday and Tuesday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Isaac Castillo will be based at Churchill Downs for the first time in his career following the close of the Oaklawn Park meet, agent Dylan Fazio said Monday.
Castillo is the fifth leading rider at Oaklawn, which closes May 6. Fazio said Castillo will start riding at Churchill on May 11.
“We’ve had some people approach us and thought it was the right time to take a jump over there,” said Fazio.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Longtime South Florida training fixture Ralph Ziadie, best known for developing the multiple Grade 1 winner and $2.5 million earner Sir Bear, passed away last week at the age of 84.
Ziadie, who relocated from his native Jamaica to South Florida 50 years earlier and whose son Kirk followed in his footsteps as a successful trainer on the local circuit for many years, was a mainstay on the Calder backstretch for more than three decades.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Joe Rocco Jr. was sidelined three months this winter because of a hand fracture suffered in a starting gate incident Dec. 9 at Turfway Park. Rocco was aboard Praise and Honor when the mare broke through the gate prematurely, throwing the 40-year-old jockey.
“She only got loose for a few yards before the outrider caught her,” said Rocco. “I injured my hand, so they had to get another rider,” John McKee, who then guided her to a fourth-place finish.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Older horses going a distance of ground will occupy the spotlight Saturday at Keeneland in a pair of graded races, the Grade 2 Elkhorn on turf and the Grade 3 Ben Ali on the main track.
The $350,000 Elkhorn will be run at the three-turn distance of 1 1/2 miles, with the $300,000 Ben Ali going 1 1/8 miles around two turns.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Before heading to Louisville to oversee the preparations of his Kentucky Derby trio of Forte, Kingsbarns and Tapit Trice, trainer Todd Pletcher made a pit stop in New York to check on his Belmont Park string.
Among the group based at Belmont is Classic Catch, who finished fifth in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial, the only horse in the 12-horse field to close significant ground. Classic Catch, a son of Classic Empire, will point to the Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan at Belmont on May 13 as a potential steppingstone to the Belmont Stakes on June 10.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher has used the word “perfect” many times in describing how things have progressed over the last several months for his reigning juvenile champion Forte as he prepares for his role as the favorite on May 6 at Churchill Downs in the Kentucky Derby.
Just how perfect?
So perfect, even Mother Nature couldn’t prevent Forte from remaining right on schedule and getting in his final South Florida workout as planned Friday morning at Palm Beach Downs along with another key Derby contender in stablemate Kingsbarns.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Confidence Game, who skipped the Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland to train straight into the Kentucky Derby on May 6, was sent through a serious one-mile workout Friday at Churchill by trainer Keith Desormeaux.
Breaking from the gate and working over a fast track, Confidence Game initially worked alongside an unraced 3-year-old who dropped out about midway through, with a 3-year-old maiden named Giant Awakening joining in for the last five furlongs or so. Churchill clocker John Nichols got Confidence Game in 1:38.20.
