ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – During Derby Week in Louisville trainer Donnie Von Hemel was laying low at Arlington Park, but the stars of Von Hemel’s stable – the two or three of them, depending how you look at it – will be swinging back into action in coming weeks.
ELMONT, N.Y. – With the disappointment of the Wood Memorial still somewhat fresh in their minds, the connections of The Lumber Guy on Monday chose to run their promising 3-year-old New York-bred in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes rather than wait a week for the $1 million Preakness at Pimlico.
The Peter Pan is run at 1 1/8 miles around one turn. The Preakness is run at 1 3/16 miles around two turns against the supposed upper echelon of the 3-year-old division.
I’ll Have Another, who won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, flew to Maryland on Monday to get an early start on preparing for the 137th Preakness Stakes on May 19 at Pimlico Racecourse, a race that, like the Derby, should have a full field.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown hopes a return to Belmont Park will result in a return to the winner’s circle for Her Smile, who heads a five-horse field entered in Wednesday’s $85,000 Marta Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Last year, when owned by Bobby Flay and trained by Todd Pletcher, Her Smile won the Grade 1 Prioress going six furlongs at Belmont. Her Smile finished the year with three losses, though she did run a good third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs.
Jockey Alex Solis has moved his tack to Woodbine and had three mounts for trainer Lisa Lewis here Sunday.
Solis has won 4,926 career races and his mounts have earned more than $228 million in a career that began in 1982.
Solis, 48, has spent most of his career in California but moved his base of operations to the East Coast in 2010. He has ridden primarily at Gulfstream, Keeneland, and in New York this year. Although he only has seven 2012 victories, he won the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile on Data Link at Keeneland on April 13.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was yet another respectable effort, albeit another losing one. In the last three runnings of the Kentucky Derby, horses trained by Dale Romans have finished third (Paddy O’Prado, 2010), fourth (Shackleford, 2011), and third (Dullahan, 2012), and it’s starting to frustrate the Louisville-born trainer a little.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Essence Hit Man led off last year’s Woodbine meeting with a win here in the six-furlong Jacques Cartier Stakes and a second-place finish in the seven-furlong Vigil.
Now, after being named Canada’s champion male sprinter of 2011 at the Sovereign Awards ceremony here this April, Essence Hit Man already has gone one better, as he followed up a repeat in the Jacques Cartier by winning the Vigil here this past Sunday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – La Donna Mobile will move out to an appropriate distance in Wednesday’s feature at Woodbine, a 1 1/16-mile allowance for Ontario-sired females. The race will cap the pick four, which has a guaranteed pool of $100,000.
La Donna Mobile, a lightly raced 4-year-old trained by Barb Minshall, was unplaced in three starts before she finished second in her first two-turn attempt Nov. 4. A month later, she graduated by 4 1/1 lengths in a slow nine-furlong maiden special for Ontario-sired stock.
Northern Indy had finished off the board in his only two prior grass starts, but some back-class and a distance pedigree bolstered the 4-year-old to victory in Sunday’s $35,000 Hasta La Vista Handicap at Turf Paradise on the final race of the track’s 156-day meet.
