MIAMI – The Summit of Speed is still nearly two months away, but trainers Leo Azpurua Jr. and Steve DiMauro were already thinking well ahead after sending out their top 3-year-old sprinters to victories last Saturday at Calder. Manicero, trained by Azpurua for his father, Leo Azpurua Sr., won the In Summation Stakes, while the DiMauro-trained Beso Grande took the French Village Stakes.
Nehro, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, will not run in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico, owner Ahmed Zayat said early Tuesday morning.
"It's a very hard decision, but I want to err on the side of caution," Zayat said. "He couldn't look any better. His work on Monday was absolutely awesome. I'm just concerned about him having four hard races in eight weeks, even if, outwardly, he doesn't appear to be showing it.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Progeny of the stallion Distorted Humor have won stakes each of the last three racing days at Belmont Park. That streak could very well continue Wednesday at Belmont Park when Savvy Supreme makes her stakes debut in the $60,000 Classy Mirage going six furlongs at Belmont.
The board of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association tabled a vote on a proposal from the lease-holder of Monmouth Park that would guarantee 71 live racing days per year and average daily purse distribution of $400,000 a day for the next five years, citing the need to communicate with its general membership first, according to the association's president.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Keeneland-based trainer Joseph Griffitt came up the old-fashioned way. Wait, check that. Griffitt’s ascension to the position of head trainer has been highly unusual.
Griffitt began his training career in late December. It took him more than four months to send out a winner, but his maiden victory finally came when Honored View won Friday’s first race at Arlington by almost five lengths. Career win number 2 came only an hour later, when High, a second horse Griffitt had shipped here from Keeneland, won Arlington’s third race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Alternation, the determined head winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes, was expected to arrive in Chicago on Wednesday morning, and his connections will wait for at least a week before they decide whether to ship the horse back to New York for the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 11.
“It’s something certainly to consider, I think we’ll probably watch the Preakness with great interest then probably sometime in the middle of next week try to come up with the plan,” trainer Donnie Von Hemel said Monday morning by phone from Chicago.
Led by Animal Kingdom, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, an intriguing mix of Derby participants and Triple Crown newcomers is set to be entered Wednesday in Saturday’s 136th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, but the final composition of the field was still in flux Monday, owing to the difficulty owner Ahmed Zayat was having deciding on whether to run Nehro, the Derby runner-up.
Getaway Guy has been a different horse since trainer Greg Foley put blinkers on him in February at Fair Grounds. Foley hopes that proves to be the case when the gelding is part of a full field of 12 3-year-olds in the $100,000 Tom Ridge at Presque Isle Downs on Wednesday evening.
“Putting the blinkers on him has really turned him around,” Foley said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Inglorious got back into the groove Sunday at Woodbine, capturing the $180,000 La Lorgnette by 1 1/2 lengths and confirming her status as the favorite for the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks.
Undefeated in her two starts here last year for trainer Josie Carroll and the Donver Stable of Donna and Vern Dubinsky, Inglorious had leading rider Luis Contreras in the irons for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile La Lorgnette.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Northern Bear should be on the prowl for the lion’s share of the $58,600 purse in Wednesday night’s Woodbine feature. The 6 1/2-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired stock drew a field of 16, which includes two also-eligibles. Carded as race 7, it will conclude the pick four, which has a guaranteed pool of $75,000.
Northern Bear finished second as part of a win photo in both of his starts in April 2010. Following a layoff of nearly a year on April 10, he came from a stalking position to capture a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special for Ontario-sired runners.
