When Harissa won the Langhorne Stakes by four lengths on March 29 at Parx Racing, it was initially designed to be a prep for the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day.
The connections have called an audible and will now point the multiple stakes-winning filly to the Grade 2, $150,000 Shuvee Handicap at Belmont on May 21. The Shuvee is run as a one-turn mile.
Hushion said the Shuvee was chosen of the Human so to not “put her through all the stress of Derby Day.’’
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – As one of the elite races on the calendar for fillies and mares, the Apple Blossom tends to draw its share of champions. That should again be the case this year as trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday that Blind Luck will likely make her next start in the Grade 1, $500,000 race at Oaklawn.
“I’m planning on it,” Hollendorfer said of next Friday’s Apple Blossom. “But I’m waiting on the weights.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Jim Hooper would like to keep his streaking New York-bred gelding Inherit the Gold competing on the New York Racing Association circuit, but he would also like to keep him racing around two turns. With the Belmont Park meet about three weeks away, there is only one real opportunity for Inherit the Gold to do both.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The sun had peeked out from its cloud cover and a warm breeze was blowing. The quiet of the Kentucky countryside was broken by Keeneland’s race-caller, Kurt Becker, breaking one of his typical lengthy stretches of welcome silence by somberly intoning: “They’re at the post.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Bruce Brown has wanted to run Dr Disco in distances longer than the six furlongs the 3-year-old has run thus far. Brown had two races this weekend at Aqueduct from which to choose and is leaning toward Sunday’s $60,000 Packett’s Landing Stakes for New York-breds going one mile as opposed to Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Bay Shore Stakes against open company at seven furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The participation of Jaycito in Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Derby was cast in doubt on Friday when trainer Bob Baffert said the colt is battling the lingering effects of a bruise in his right front foot.
Baffert said that a decision on whether Jaycito will start in the Santa Anita Derby will be made on race morning. Jaycito inherited the role of morning-line favorite when Premier Pegasus was withdrawn on Thursday because of a hairline fracture in the cannon bone of his left foreleg.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Essence Hit Man, second best to Hollywood Hit in the Sovereign Award voting for champion male sprinter of 2010, should be looking to turn the tables on the racetrack here in next Sunday’s $150,000 Jacques Cartier.
With Fatal Bullet, Canada’s Horse of the Year and champion male sprinter of 2009, also set to compete, the six-furlong Jacques Cartier should be the race of the young meeting.
Overnight purses will rise at the upcoming Hollywood Park meeting, significantly for maiden special weight, allowance races and starter allowance races, with some categories for claimers higher than what is offered at the current Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
Overall, overnight purses will be approximately $290,000 to $300,000 per day, 16 to 20 percent higher than the $250,000 paid at the 2010 spring-summer meeting, according to racing secretary Martin Panza.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Wesley Ward-trained entry of Crimson Glory and Easy Ashley will garner lots of attention in Sunday’s featured sixth race at Woodbine, a second-level optional $62,500 claimer at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Crimson Glory had been idle for nearly five months when she made all the running in a five-furlong allowance on the grass at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 25.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Premier Pegasus, the early morning-line favorite in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby before being sidelined Thursday because of a hairline fracture in the cannon bone of his left foreleg, was scheduled to undergo surgery Friday afternoon to stabilize the injury.
Maria Ayala, assistant to owner-trainer Myung Kwon Cho, said the surgery was expected to insert one screw in the affected area, which she said was on the outside of the cannon bone. The injury will keep Premier Pegasus out of training for several months.
