LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Grant Forster owns a house on Central Avenue right across from Churchill Downs, which makes things easy when he and his many friends decide to take the party home from the track. Friday kicks off the popular twilight concert series in the Churchill paddock, and after Forster runs a filly named Brushed by a Star in the featured 10th of 11 races, he might well be in the mood to kick back and do a little celebrating into the night.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Owner/trainer Jim Ensom had his best year to date in 2011, sending out seven winners and a total of 12 in-the-money finishers from just 16 starters. And while Ensom has changed his modus operandi this year, with permanent stalls at Woodbine for the first time, the results have been nothing less than spectacular.
After watching Kawaguchi win for the second time at the meeting here last Sunday, one day after stable star Sweet Starlet had completed a similar double, Ensom is 6 for 6 here this spring.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Johannes makes her much anticipated second start Friday at Woodbine in the featured fourth race, a first-level allowance sprint for 3-year-old fillies.
Johannes made quite a splash April 8 in a five-furlong maiden special for 3-year-old fillies, scoring by 11 1/2 lengths in 56.80 seconds, a time which was just .39 of a second off the track record. She earned a whopping 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
Owner Shivananda Parbhoo is so impressed with how well Trinniberg has come out of the Kentucky Derby that he said Tuesday if Derby runner-up Bodemeister doesn’t run in the Preakness, Trinniberg will run in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
“If Bodemeister is going to the Preakness, I’m not going to go,” Parbhoo said by phone Tuesday from Florida. If he’s not going, I’ll go to the Preakness.”
Trinniberg vanned from Kentucky to Calder on Monday and was full of himself Tuesday morning walking the shed, according to Parbhoo.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Morning Line, who won his California debut in the Mervyn LeRoy, will make his next start in the $150,000 Californian Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on June 2.
Between those races, trainer John Shirreffs and his staff will be working on Morning Line’s peculiar behavior. At times, the multiple stakes-winning 5-year-old has proven difficult to train and manage.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The chances were roughly one in 153 that I’ll Have Another and Bodemeister would emerge from the Kentucky Derby as the horses deserving of the most attention, at least according to their $306 exacta payoff. Yet as a post-Derby calm settled over the Churchill Downs stable area, the odds were much shorter that those two will dominate the discussion when the Preakness machine starts revving up in the next few days, another new and intriguing storyline in what has become a Triple Crown season filled with such.
Shockman, who won his career debut in a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds last Sunday at Lone Star Park, is now being pointed to the track’s $100,000 Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity. The colts and geldings division of the five-furlong race will be run June 16.
“He is going on to the Sales Futurity,” said Calhoun, who trains the horse for his breeders, Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch. “We don’t have any trials; this is the first year we haven’t had them. It’s strictly on earnings.”
Ted’s Folly, who rolled to a more than seven-length win in a division of the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes last Saturday at Will Rogers Downs, could make his next start at Prairie Meadows. Trainer Wilson Brown said the horse is being considered for a start in the $60,000 Prairie Mile for 3-year-olds June 2.
“We’ll probably haul him up there for that, then not run back until Remington,” Brown said of the meet that opens in August. “There’s two or three races at Remington that just kind of set up for him. That’s kind of the game plan.”
The race portion of the Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC on Saturday posted a 9.0 national rating and a 20 share, according to data released by NBC on Tuesday, a slight increase over viewership data from last year’s race.
Compared to other major sporting events, the Derby rating stacks up favorably. This year’s two Final Four games of the NCAA tournament, for example, received ratings of 9.0 and 9.6, with each game also posting a 17 share. Games in the ongoing Stanley Cup playoffs are currently averaging a rating of approximately 1.5.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On the vast majority of race days anywhere in America, the so-called feature race is the richest one, with exceptions granted depending on circumstance.
And after Churchill Downs goes dark for a few days after the Kentucky Derby, there always seems to be an exception granted to the first day back. In many prior years, a big pick six jackpot has been the main attraction when racing resumes post-Derby, but the pick six was hit Saturday, with each winning $2 ticket worth $675,148.
