LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When trainer Stanley Gold left Churchill Downs last fall after his Awesome Feather completed a perfect campaign with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, he had little expectation he would be back here again this year.
“It really wasn’t something I thought was going to happen,” said Gold, who maintains a 20-horse stable at Calder. “It’s a pleasant surprise.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. − As a racing fan, Nick Zito enjoys the Breeders’ Cup because it affords the opportunity to showcase the best horses in training over two days.
As a trainer, Zito has endured some brutal beats over the last two decades in Thoroughbred racing’s richest event. While Zito has been fortunate enough to win two Breeders’ Cup races from 35 starters − the 1996 Juvenile Fillies with Storm Song and the 2007 Juvenile with War Pass − he is a nose, two necks, and a head away from being regarded as one of the more successful trainers in the 27-year history of the series.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The turf course at Santa Anita was wet, and speed did not hold, when Princess Suances returned Oct. 7 following a 19-month layoff.
Princess Suances set a fast pace, led to deep stretch, and tired to fifth in a one-mile entry-level allowance for fillies and mares. On Thursday at Santa Anita, Princess Suances and jockey Brice Blanc try again. This time, conditions are far more favorable.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nearly a year after he streaked down the center of the Churchill Downs turf course to stamp himself as a horse for the future, Pluck has done nothing to fulfill that huge potential. Hindered by bone bruising in his hind cannon bones, the colt will be trying to reprise a happy Breeders’ Cup theme when he returns to action at Churchill on Thursday in a competitive eighth running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Commonwealth Turf.
The 1 1/16-mile Commonwealth anchors a 12-race card Thursday, the eve of the two-day Breeders’ Cup at Churchill.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A two-day daily double linking the BC Ladies’ Classic on Friday and the BC Classic on Saturday is among the multitude of exotic wagers available here Breeders’ Cup weekend. Last year, the two-day double combining Unrivaled Belle and Blame paid $89 for $2, with the pool totaling $523,311.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The turf season wound up here last weekend and, somewhat appropriately, two trainers who have enjoyed mastery on the medium saddled the winners of the two stakes races offered.
Stormy Lord, trained by Ian Black, was winning his fourth stakes race of the year and third of the Woodbine meeting in Sunday’s $116,800 Labeeb, a one-mile race for 3-year-olds and up that was run on yielding turf.
On a typical weekday at 8 a.m., most college students are preparing for class, or so the parents funding their educations can only hope.
David Matt, a senior at the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program, wasn’t even close to campus Monday morning, or even in Arizona. Rather, he was on the Churchill Downs backstretch, watching Havre de Grace breeze in the morning hours in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Hidden Profit made a positive impression in his first start outside the maiden ranks, and he should be a player in Thursday’s Woodbine headliner, an Ontario-sired allowance sprint for nonwinners of two.
Hidden Profit’s first two races in June were forgettable, and he also ran flat following a layoff in an Aug. 13 maiden special. He turned the corner Sept. 10, when he went on Lasix and won a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired maidens.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One year before a partial ban on raceday medication is set to go into effect for the 2012 Breeders’ Cup, all but eight of the 180 horses entered for the Breeders’ Cup’s 15 races on Nov. 4-5 will receive a raceday injection of furosemide, the anti-bleeding medication that is legal to administer to horses on raceday in all North American racing jurisdictions.
Twitter updates from DRF's Mike Welsch and David Grening in Kentucky for morning Breeders' Cup workouts on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Check back later today for Mike Welsch's full Clocker Report and video analysis of today's training and works at Churchill Downs. Welsch has been watching works in Lexington and Louisville for more than a week, check here for the rest of his Breeders' Cup clocker reports and a list of Breeders' Cup workouts by key contenders:
