ARCADIA, Calif. – Restrainedvengence, an eight-time stakes winner who was third in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar last November, has been taken out of training after losing five starts this year.
Restrainedvengence has won 10 of 40 starts and earned $1,022,252. A 7-year-old gelding, Restrainedvengence was last of 10 in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on Aug. 28 at Del Mar, which may turn out to be his final race, trainer Val Brinkerhoff said Sunday.
Lieutenant Dan will miss Saturday’s Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita and remains tentatively on course for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 5 at Keeneland.
Lieutenant Dan won the 2021 Eddie D Stakes and was later second in the BC Turf Sprint at Del Mar. Owner and breeder Nick Alexander and trainer Steve Miyadi recently reached the decision to skip the Eddie D Stakes, Alexander said Sunday.
“He is not going to run in the Eddie. D,” Alexander said. “Steve said he is not 100 percent and does not want to take chances. It’s nothing serious.”
CYPRESS, Calif. - Ce Ce, the champion female sprinter of 2021, worked five furlongs in 1:01 at Santa Anita on Sunday, but trainer Michael McCarthy said he has yet to decide whether the 6-year-old mare will start before the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 5.
Ce Ce won the BC Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar last November to clinch her title.
McCarthy said the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita next Sunday is a possibility for Ce Ce’s final start before this year’s BC Filly and Mare Sprint.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flightline made it look easy Saturday morning at Santa Anita.
The world’s top-rated horse worked an effortless half-mile in 48 seconds in his first drill since a crushing victory in the Pacific Classic on Sept. 3 at Del Mar. Flightline worked by himself at 6:35 a.m. under exercise rider Juan Leyva.
Trainer Richard Mandella plans to start the 3-year-old Forbidden Kingdom in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship at six furlongs on Oct. 1.
Unraced since a last-place finish of six in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in April, Forbidden Kingdom worked six furlongs in 1:12 at Santa Anita on Friday. The time was much quicker than a six-furlong workout in 1:14.40 on Sept. 17.
Mandella said that Forbidden Kingdom had a warm foot for a few days after the Sept. 17 workout, but that the colt recovered quickly.
Royal Ship, the winner of the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in July and two other stakes in the last 18 months, is not a certain starter in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1 and may make his next appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland on Nov. 5.
“I’m looking at the Awesome Again, but I’m not sure,” trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday.
Summer Thoroughbred racing is coming back to Chicago – just not at Arlington Park.
The Illinois Racing Board on Thursday approved 2023 racing dates for the two remaining racetracks in Illinois, with Hawthorne scheduled to host a 68-day Thoroughbred meet spanning March 4 through Sept. 4.
That’s a major change from the Thoroughbred schedule this year. Hawthorne ran a spring meet from early April through mid-June, switched over to a summer harness-racing season, and on Friday was to begin a fall-winter meet.
LOUISIVILLE, Ky. -- When Beverly Park led all the way in winning a starter-allowance Wednesday at Churchill, the 5-year-old horse notched his 11th victory of 2022, easily tops in North America. Next in the standings is Exit Right (eight wins), based at Parx Racing.
Beverly Park “is just an amazing animal,” said Norman “Lynn” Cash, who trains the Kentucky-bred son of Munnings in the name of Built Wright Stables, which he owns with his wife, Lola.
Gregorian Chant, a two-time stakes winner in 2021 who was a game second in the Wickerr Stakes at Del Mar on July 24, is on schedule for a start in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita on Oct. 1.
Gregorian Chant was entered in the Grade 2 FanDuel Turf Sprint at six furlongs at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 10, but did not start after trainer Phil D’Amato expressed concern about potential wet weather.
“He never got on the plane,” D’Amato said.
The Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland on Nov. 5 will be the next start for Laurel River, the dazzling winner of the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 27.
Trainer Bob Baffert said on Thursday that Laurel River will be better suited to a 10-week gap between starts rather than adding a race to his early-autumn calendar, such as the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1.
“I’m going to wait for the Dirt Mile,” Baffert said. “He runs better fresh.”
