STICKNEY, Ill. – Chris Block is a Chicago man through and through. His family, which races as Team Block, is a leading owner and breeder in Illinois, and the heart of Block’s season as a trainer is the Arlington Park meeting. But at the moment, Block has more high-level stakes horses than at any point in his career, and to accommodate them he has opened a small division in Kentucky for the spring and early summer.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Santiva completed his major preparations for the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes by breezing five furlongs in a minute flat Saturday morning at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida.
The likely favorite for the Keeneland showcase, Santiva was scheduled to arrive here Sunday or Monday by van for the $750,000 race that looks to have a a bulky field on Saturday, April 16.
"The horse worked unbelievably well," said trainer Eddie Kenneally. "We're ready to go. I'm very happy with him."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kathy Ritvo has scheduled four workouts for Mucho Macho Man leading up to the Kentucky Derby, and if the last three are as good as the first one, he could be a force to be reckoned with on May 7 at Churchill Downs.
KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jaycito underwent treatment on his bruised foot at trainer Bob Baffert’s barn at Santa Anita on Saturday morning, with the continued hope that he can start in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 23 after missing a scheduled to start in the $1 million Santa Anta Derby on Saturday.
Baffert said that noted blacksmith Curtis Burns had arrived from Florida and was treating Jaycito. “We’re working on him right now,” Baffert said. “Curtis is a magician. He’s good. He’ll fix him up.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Calibrachoa, the dominant sprinter in New York this winter, was scratched from Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap due to a foot issue, his connections said Saturday morning.
“He’s had some soreness in his feet since his last workout,” said Jonathan Thomas, Todd Pletcher’s assistant trainer. “He’s not lame, but it’s probably something that would prevent him from bringing his ‘A’ game. It might be something where if we had an additional week that it would have been fine.”
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ARCADIA, Calif. – The way that Major Art rallied in deep stretch to win an allowance race on turf at Santa Anita on March 18 should have left trainer Eric Kruljac excited about the colt’s 3-year-old stakes debut in Sunday’s $100,000 La Puente.
Kruljac, an admitted worry wart, is being more reserved.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Premier Pegasus, the early morning-line favorite in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby before being sidelined on Thursday because of a hairline fracture in the cannon bone of his left foreleg, underwent surgery to stabilize the injury on Friday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jaycito was withdrawn from Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Derby on Friday afternoon by trainer Bob Baffert, who said the colt's bruised right front foot had not recovered sufficiently to allow for a start.
Baffert said Jaycito was diagnosed with an abscess after a workout at Hollywood Park on March 22, and that the foot has been tender in recent days. As recently as Friday morning, Baffert was hoping that Jaycito's foot would improve enough to allow for a race.
