ELMONT, N.Y. – New York-breds who have cleared their first two restricted allowance conditions usually have little choice but to take on open company next.
Some races are easier than others and the field that the New York-bred Thunder Chief meets on Friday at Belmont Park does not look overly daunting, making him a legitimate value play in the day’s feature race, which goes as the third.
ELMONT, N.Y. – New York-breds who have cleared their first two restricted allowance conditions usually have little choice but to take on open company next.
Some races are easier than others and the field that the New York-bred Thunder Chief meets on Friday at Belmont Park does not look overly daunting, making her a legitimate value play in the day’s feature race, which goes as the third.
ARCADIA, Calif. -- Zazu, the winner of three graded stakes this year, will not start in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4 after inflammation was detected in a shoulder, trainer John Sadler said on Wednesday.
"We're going to bypass the Ladies' Classic," Sadler said. "She came out of her work a little off. We put her in the nuclear scan, and it revealed a little inflammation. The timing is lousy, but the prognosis for next year is 100 percent."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Savethethought seeks her third win in a row in Ontario-sired company Friday at Woodbine in the featured allowance for fillies and mares, which will be run over nine furlongs for a purse of $62,300.
Savethethought, a Chiefswood Stable homebred, closed for second after a tardy start when she debuted in a nine-furlong turf route July 9. Nearly six weeks later, she graduated after racing forwardly in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special, earning a 70 Beyer Speed Figure.
Jockey Ramon Dominguez is a man in demand for the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs. He is the regular rider of Havre de Grace, and though she is far more likely to run against males in the Classic on Nov. 5, his assignment for this race is not nailed down. And it’s getting more complicated.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s not too late to earn a trip to the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs next month.
If the 6-year-old Atta Boy Roy runs a big race in a $58,000 allowance race over a mile at Santa Anita on Friday, trainer Valorie Lund says the $1 million BC Dirt Mile on Nov. 5 is a possibility.
“He would have to really, really shine,” she said.
Though he remains focused primarily on the Breeders’ Cup Classic, trainer Todd Pletcher said Wednesday that he would likely pre-enter Uncle Mo in the $1 million Dirt Mile as well.
“We will probably pre-enter in the Mile as a second choice,” said Pletcher, who trains Uncle Mo for Mike Repole. “I suppose just as an insurance policy. There’s no harm in pre-entering him.”
Uncle Mo came out of his five-furlong breeze in 58.42 seconds on Sunday in good order, according to Pletcher.
The unbeaten Juvenile Fillies favorites My Miss Aurelia and Grace Hall are established, professional Grade 1 winners who are training well.
Others are longshots, with work to do.
Miss Netta has starting-gate issues that became evident when she missed the break and finished nine lengths behind My Miss Aurelia in the Grade 1 Frizette.
Rocket Twentyone will try to win the first two-turn race of her career while starting for the first time in 55 days.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Paul Buttigieg had a career year at Woodbine in 2010, with his 21 wins and purse money of $952,931 enhanced by the slew of bonuses he collected as the owner and breeder of almost all of his stock.
But the 64-year-old Buttigieg certainly isn’t the type to get carried away and knew that he would have difficulty performing an encore this season.
“Last year my older horses just kept putting out their conditions, and I took my 2-year-olds in early,” said Buttigieg.
Aside from those owners whose horses won Win and You’re In races, resulting in expense-paid berths to the Breeders’ Cup, participating owners in the Breeders’ Cup must ante up a sizable 3 percent of the race purse to pre-enter and start their horse.
