Forte, the Grade 1 Hopeful winner, was not entered in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes as expected, leaving the one-mile race for 2-year-olds a bit more wide open.
It was unclear why Forte was held out of the race. The Breeders’ Futurity, a two-turn race at Keeneland on Oct. 8, could be a back-up plan.
Without Forte in the race, favoritism figures to be up for grabs between Gulfport and Verifying.
Be Your Best, convincing winner of her two starts, including the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga, heads a field of six entered for the Grade 2, $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes for juvenile fillies going 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Be Your Best, who will break from post 6 under Jose Ortiz, will take on maiden winners Georgees Spirit, Free Look, Pleasant Passage, Alluring Angel, and Im Just Kiddin.
The Miss Grillo awards its winner a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Thin White Duke, Dancing Buck and Fauci, the top three finishers from the Lucky Coin Stakes at Saratoga, meet again in the Grade 3, $200,000 Belmont Turf Sprint, which drew an evenly matched field of 12.
The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission on Wednesday denied an appeal by the trainer Juan Vazquez of a suspension that will run through January 2025.
Vazquez, a trainer based in Pennsylvania who put up gaudy win percentages early in his career, was suspended this summer by the commission after being accused of shipping a mare in January from Belmont Park in New York to Parx Racing outside of Philadelphia despite the mare having an acute case of laminitis. The mare, Shining Colors, was euthanized three days after the journey.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hot Rod Charlie and Art Collector head a six-horse field that also includes 2022 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike in the Saturday feature at Churchill Downs, the Grade 2, $500,000 Lukas Classic.
Hot Rod Charlie, with Tyler Gaffalione to ride, was assigned post 5 in the Lukas Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race that shares the Saturday spotlight with the Grade 3, $300,000 Ack Ack. The one-mile Ack Ack is a Win and You’re In toward the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland.
Chris Griffin, the race caller at Parx racetrack outside Philadelphia, will become the full-time announcer at Monmouth Park in New Jersey starting next year, Monmouth announced on Wednesday.
Griffin will take over for Frank Mirahmadi, who has been Monmouth’s race caller for eight years. Mirahmadi accepted a position as the full-time race caller beginning next year at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., whose meet runs concurrent with much of the Monmouth meet.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, $1 million Florida Derby, and $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf highlight the stakes schedule for the 2022-2023 Gulfstream Park championship meet released on Tuesday.
The championship meeting opens several weeks later than usual this winter, on Dec. 26, and continues through April 2.
A total of 60 stakes, 35 of them graded events, will be decided for $13.6 million in purses. The schedule includes 31 races carded to be run over Gulfstream Park’s newly renovated turf course.
Vicente Del-Cid has quietly emerged as a leading candidate for the Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2022 with a breakout year in Louisiana. Del-Cid through Monday ranked second in wins in North America, tied with Tyler Gaffalione and trailing only Irad Ortiz Jr.
Del-Cid, who is a 21-year-old native of Guatemala, has won 203 races from 957 mounts so far this year. He still has about a month left with his five-pound apprentice allowance and will be active at Delta Downs, which opens Oct. 5.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Nest, the leader of the 3-year-old filly division, will likely make her next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Beldame Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 9, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Nest is a three-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly who recorded convincing victories in both the Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama during the summer at Saratoga. The fact there is 11 weeks between the Alabama and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff made simply training up to that Nov. 4 race a less than desirable option.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Charge It on Tuesday returned to the work tab for the first time in six weeks as he ramps up preparation for a fall campaign his connections hope begins with a start in the Grade 2, $300,000 Kelso Handicap at Aqueduct on Oct. 29.
Charge It breezed a half-mile in 49.22 seconds by himself Tuesday morning over the Belmont Park training track. He went his first quarter in 25.33 seconds, his second quarter in 23.89 and galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.97.
