Trainer Roger Attfield will have his first starter at Aqueduct in three years when he ships Churchtown in from Woodbine for Saturday’s $135,000 Gio Ponti Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Churchtown, a gelding by Air Force Blue is coming off a neck loss to Luckman in the Toronto Cup at Woodbine on Sept. 10. Prior to that, he won an allowance on synthetic and one on turf, also at Woodbine.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Graded stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Cairo Memories is out of training and scheduled to be sold, according to trainer Bob Hess Jr.
Cairo Memories won three turf stakes, including a pair of Grade 3 races early this year at Santa Anita, but misfired last out in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss at Santa Anita. She finished fifth of 11 as the even-money favorite.
“We had her in the November sale, we flew her [to Kentucky] to sell her, but she got sick,” Hess said, adding that she will be listed in one of two sales early next year.
DEL MAR, Calif. – American Theorem, the California-based Grade 1 winner who became one of the circuit’s top sprinters in spring and summer, is on vacation following his eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“He’s back, he came out of the race good, we just want to give him a little time off,” trainer George Papaprodomou said. “There’s nothing coming up right now.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – California-based veteran sprinter C Z Rocket, the 8-year-old gelding who outran expectations finishing second at 31-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland, has returned to California for a freshening before he commences a campaign at age 9.
“Our plan is to run him next year,” trainer Peter Miller said. “Give him a little break, a little freshening, then shoot for maybe Oaklawn or maybe Dubai.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Regal Glory will aim to be the first horse in nearly three decades to win the Grade 1 Matriarch in consecutive years when she makes the final start of an outstanding career in the mile turf race for fillies and mares on Dec. 4 at Del Mar.
Trainer Chad Brown plans to start Regal Glory and Dolce Zel in the $400,000 Matriarch, a race he has won four of the past five years.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike is confirmed for the Clark, the Grade 1 race that anchors the final five-day stretch to this 19-day meet next Friday.
“As long as we don’t have any hiccups, we’ll be there,” trainer Eric Reed said Wednesday from his Mercury training center. “He’s showing me he’s ready.”
Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., has canceled its quinella wager, effective immediately, after evidence emerged that one of the bet’s pools was manipulated in the first race on Nov. 11, the track’s parent company said on Tuesday.
In the race, a seven-horse maiden-claiming field, the quinella had total handle of $24,280, according to the chart. Typically at Gulfstream, the quinella draws only several thousand dollars of wagers.
Doug O’Neill, one of the leading trainers in California, has accepted a 30-day suspension from the stewards at Golden Gate Fields after one of his runners tested positive for lidocaine after a race there in May, according to a ruling posted on the website of the California Horse Racing Board.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Troubled jockey Kent Desormeaux resumes riding on Friday at Del Mar, grateful for sobriety and welcoming the opportunity to restore his reputation as a preeminent jockey.
Desormeaux is named Friday on two horses, his first mounts since his career unraveled again early this year. In January, he was arrested in Louisiana on a charge of domestic abuse and later suspended 60 days by the California Horse Racing Board as a result of a 2021 altercation at an RV Park near Del Mar. Desormeaux has not ridden since Jan. 23.
Tom Amoss, a leading trainer based in the Midwest and Louisiana, has accepted a seven-day suspension from the Indiana Horse Racing Commission after a horse he trained tested positive for a “permissible medication” after a race at Horseshoe Indianapolis this summer, Amoss said.
Amoss, writing on social media, said that the horse, Catwings, tested over a regulated limit for an unidentified medication. In a text message in response to a phone call seeking information on the incident, Amoss said that he didn’t have “any additional comment” beyond the post.
