INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It’s not often that Mr Gruff gets to the races, but it’s often worth it. At the ripe old age of 7, he has made just 10 starts, and has raced just once in the last 17 months. Yet his aptitude in turf sprints is not nearly as spotty, and that is why, despite the inactivity, he merits a tremendous amount of respect in Friday evening’s feature race at Hollywood Park, the $60,000 Night Mover at six furlongs on turf.
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DRF Past Performances
It was all aboard the graded-money express on Wednesday, when an overflow group of 14 2-year-olds were entered for Saturday’s Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot. The race will offer this year’s winner $590,000 in graded earnings, the kind of funds that could secure a young horse a spot in the starting gate for next year’s Kentucky Derby.
Prayer for Relief, who remained in California as an early scratch from the Nov. 5 Breeders' Cup Classic after developing a slight fever, will make it to Churchill Downs after all. The colt will run in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday from California.
Prayer for Relief joins Belmont Stakes winner Ruler On Ice as the only 3-year-olds likely to race in what is shaping up as a terrific 137th running of the $500,000 Clark, a 1 1/8-mile race set for next Friday, Nov. 25.
A.U. Miner, the 6-year-old horse who sustained a badly fractured left-front sesamoid on the final turn of the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Marathon, continues to make progress at the Hagyard Davidson McGee Equine Medical Institute after undergoing surgery to repair the injury.
“I got a report on him this morning, and he’s doing okay,” trainer Clark Hanna said Wednesday. “He’s off all injectable medicines and is just on oral bute,” referring to phenylbutzaone, and anti-inflammatory analgesic. “The doctors say that’ll be the case for the next couple of weeks.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dan Peitz was entertaining thoughts of running Tajaaweed in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland when the horse’s owner, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, threw in a few words of caution.
“Sheikh Hamdan was at the sales at Keeneland in September, and when I brought up the Shadwell, he said, ‘He is not a Group 1 horse!’” recalled Peitz. “But the horse had been running so well and training so well, I went against his advice.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sweetsouthern Doll didn’t make many headlines during her racing career, with the majority of her appearances coming in the claiming ranks for owners Anne and Jim Perron.
But, after finishing her career with a 4 1/2-length victory here last Sunday, Sweetsouthern Doll will have a chance to make a name for herself as a broodmare. She ends her career with a record of 9-4-6 and earnings of more than $250,000 from 37 career starts.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs officials initially wanted a Downs After Dark theme that had something to do with the jungle, but why not pay homage to your latest Kentucky Derby winner at the same time? Thus was born a clever “Animal Kingdom” idea that thousands of racegoers will revel in Friday evening, more than six months since a colt by the same name thundered home a winner in Derby 137.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Activity around the racetrack, grandstand, and barn area at Gulfstream Park is in full swing, with the Dec. 3 opening of the 2011-2012 meeting just around the corner.
Construction crews are working feverishly to complete the track’s $3 million capital improvement program in time for the opener, which comes one month earlier than Gulfstream’s traditional Jan. 3 opening date.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Kiss in the Forest is drawn outside the other speed in Friday’s seventh race at Woodbine, which could give her an advantage in the six-furlong allowance for 2-year-old fillies.
Kiss in the Forest placed in all three of her starts for trainer Mark Frostad. She led the way before weakening to third in her Aug. 1 debut, and subsequently finished third again after flashing speed, in another six-furlong maiden special on the grass.