Pimlico, which was to open its meet on Friday, has delayed implementing a reduced-takeout pick five until it receives “official” approval, according to a track press release. Pimlico expects the bet to be added to the menu in the “very near future.”
Saturday’s Final Four college basketball confrontation between in-state rivals Louisville and the University of Kentucky will be of particular interest to many locally based trainers with ties or close allegiances to both schools.
Romans will saddle two horses, News Pending and Z Camelot, in Saturday’s Florida Derby. Had he not, he would be in New Orleans to attend the game.
Yara went off at odds of 64-1 and outgamed the 4-5 favorite Grace Hall to upset the Grade 2 Davona Dale earlier this winter. But the Calder invader will not sneak up on anybody when the pair square off once again in Saturday’s $300,000 Gulfstream Oaks.
The Grade 2 Oaks is the highlight of the Florida Derby undercard and one of seven stakes on the outstanding 13-race card. A field of eight 3-year-old fillies was drawn Wednesday for the 1 1/8-mile Oaks with Yara drawing the rail and Grace Hall, who again figures to be the public’s choice, starting from post 5.
NEW ORLEANS – Finnegans Wake likes to gawk. The rawboned 3-year-old shipped from trainer Dale Romans’s base at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida to Fair Grounds on March 21. It was not until Wednesday morning during a routine gallop that he seemed to have really gotten used to the place.
“He’s a horse that really needs to get acclimated into his surroundings,” said Tammy Fox, the former jockey who is Romans’s longtime partner and a regular work rider for the stable. “He looks around a lot. He’s like a kid. Today was the first day he was really focused out there.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With five horses entered, including three morning-line choices and contenders in all three allowance races, Bruce Levine will be the busiest trainer at Aqueduct on Friday.
Levine’s best chance comes in race 3 with T J’s Stormy Wit, who was claimed from a blowout maiden win at Santa Anita earlier this month, and looms the one to catch and beat in her local bow for owner Roddy Valente.
“She’s doing the best of all of them – she’s quick,” said Levine.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – As good as Union Rags ran last time out in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, trainer Michael Matz expects an even better performance Saturday, when Union Rags heads the field in the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby, which drew a field of nine Wednesday at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dullahan, currently among the top 10 3-year-olds in this week’s Derby Watch, remains on target to have his final Kentucky Derby prep in the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 14 despite missing several days of training due to a splint injury.
“He popped a splint, he missed some training, but he’s doing fine now,” said trainer Dale Romans while watching Dullahan gallop over a muddy track at Gulfstream Park on Wednesday. “And he sure looks good to me out there this morning.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – As much as things can be normal with the boss in a hospital 11 times zones away, life around trainer Bob Baffert’s stable has continued this week.
Chief assistant Jimmy Barnes has been in frequent contact with Baffert since the Hall of Fame trainer suffered a heart attack in Dubai on Monday morning. Barnes has overseen the stable’s Santa Anita team this week as the buildup to Saturday’s $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks and the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7 intensifies.
Baffert, Barnes said, has been kept fully aware of the stable’s developments.
No Spin, an Oaklawn-based runner who finished fourth in last weekend’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby, will return to turf for Arlington Park’s stakes series for 3-year-olds, trainer Tim Ice said on Wednesday.
“He didn’t run a bad race, but I think he’s probably a better turf horse,” he said.
NEW ORLEANS – Entire civilizations have evolved and perished in the amount of time it will take to complete the Friday racing program in New Orleans. Mountain ranges may form, glaciers melt, and stars flame out and fade into darkness between the first and last races.
