Sun, 04/03/2022 - 14:19

Who will train Weyburn is question for owners

Barbara D. Livingston
Weyburn, with Tyler Gaffalione up, pulls clear in the stretch to win the Sir Shackleton Stakes.

Typically, the toughest decision an owner has to make the day after winning a race is where to run that horse next. In the case of Weyburn, the owners - Robert and Mark Krembil’s Chiefswood Stables - have to decide who will train the horse for his next start.

Weyburn won Saturday’s $100,000 Sir Shackleton in his first start for Brendan Walsh. The horse had made his first eight starts for Jimmy Jerkens, including a 46-1 upset of last year’s Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct. The owners sent Weyburn to Walsh for the winter because Jerkens was not sending horses to South Florida.

Sun, 04/03/2022 - 14:00

Kathleen O. gets Shug McGaughey back to the Kentucky Oaks

Barbara D. Livingston
Kathleen O. mantuvo su invicto en las Gulfstream Park Oaks

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It has been 29 years since trainer Shug McGaughey won the Kentucky Oaks, and 19 years since he last had a runner in the prestigious race for 3-year-old fillies at Churchill Downs.

This year McGaughey will return to the Oaks with Kathleen O., who cemented her status as one of the top contenders with a 2 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks. That victory was her fourth in as many starts.

Sat, 04/02/2022 - 16:11

Sean McCarthy, Tim Yakteen to take over training of Baffert horses

Barbara D. Livingston
Baffert en Churchill Downs luego del Kentucky Derby 2021

Trainers Sean McCarthy and Tim Yakteen will take control of horses trained by Bob Baffert when the Hall of Fame trainer begins a 90-day suspension Monday for a 2021 medication violation found in Kentucky Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit, Santa Anita officials said Saturday.

McCarthy will care for a majority of the stable, while Yakteen will have a select group of candidates that are being prepared for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6 and 7.

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 15:06

Keepmeinmind moved to Pletcher barn

Debra A. Roma
Keepmeinmind works a bullet half-mile at Saratoga on Aug. 14. Trainer Robertino Diodoro believes Keepmeinmind deserves another chance to upset Essential Quality.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Keepmeinmind, a graded stakes winner at 2 who ran in seven consecutive graded stakes last year at 3 without a win, has been moved from Robertino Diodoro to trainer Todd Pletcher.

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Fri, 04/01/2022 - 15:06

Joseph locks up first Gulfstream training title

Barbara D. Livingston
Saffie Joseph Jr. (above) has broken Todd Pletcher's stranglehold on the Gulfstream winter meet training title.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When Sonic Kitten rallied to win Friday’s first race, it clinched the Gulfstream Park winter meet title for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. It was his 54th win of the meet, 10 more than perennial leading trainer Todd Pletcher, who had runners in just nine races over the weekend.

Pletcher had won the last 18 titles. (Jorge Navarro won the 2018-19 meet, but had the title stripped after being indicted on drug charges.)

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 14:56

Ortiz puts in the miles to work Letruska, First Captain

Ryan Thompson/Coglianese Photos
Letruska wins the Royal Delta at Gulfstream by three lengths on Feb. 26. She runs next in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Jose Ortiz was a man on the move Friday morning.

At 7:45 a.m., Ortiz was at the Palm Meadows training center where he guided the champion mare Letruska through a five-furlong move in 1:00.50. Shortly before 9:30, Ortiz was at Gulfstream Park – about a 45-minute drive from Palm Meadows – to work First Captain a half-mile in 48.84 seconds.

Letruska is pointing to the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 23 at Oaklawn Park. First Captain is scheduled to make his next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct next Saturday.

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 14:50

Mr Money Bags may stretch out in next start

Coady Photography
Mr Money Bags won his 10th stakes in the Spirit of Texas at Sam Houston last weekend.

Mr Money Bags, who won the 10th stakes of his career in the $100,000 Spirit of Texas last weekend at Sam Houston Race Park, could stretch out around two turns for his next start, trainer Jaylan Clary said.

“We’re looking at a mile, possibly,” she said. “Nothing’s set in stone. We’re just kind of giving him a little down time. He’ll still be galloping. We just haven’t planned too far ahead.”

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 14:36

Slow Down Andy's big brother Team Merchants also won on Sunland Derby card

Coady Photography
Team Merchants wins the Bill Thomas Memorial last Sunday at Sunland Park. Later in the day his younger brother Slow Down Andy won the Sunland Derby.

Plans are to be determined for Team Merchants, who was a six-length winner of the $100,000 Bill Thomas Memorial on the Sunland Park Derby undercard last Sunday. He set a quick pace before winning the 6 1/2-furlong race in hand in 1:14.12. Team Marchants earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 92.

“He’s a cool horse,” trainer Doug O’Neill said Tuesday. “I’m not really sure where he may end up, maybe on the undercard Derby week at Churchill Downs.”

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 14:26

Apprentice rider Leahey has first Santa Anita mount

Hannah Leahey, a 26-year-old apprentice jockey, who launched her career at Turf Paradise last month, will have her first mount at Santa Anita aboard Musical Gem in Sunday’s sixth race for $12,500 claimers.

Through Thursday, Leahey had won two races from nine mounts at Turf Paradise since March 9. In the last month, Leahey has been based at Turf Paradise during the week and at Santa Anita on weekends working as an exercise rider.

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 14:26

Dr. Schivel will be pointed to Del Mar meet

Barbara D. Livingston
Dr. Schivel, the third-place finisher in the Golden Shaheen at Meydan in Dubai, will be freshened and pointed to the Bing Crosby Stakes, which he won last year.

Dr. Schivel, third in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Stakes for sprinters in Dubai on March 26, will be rested in coming weeks for an expected return to racing at the Del Mar summer meeting.

Trainer Mark Glatt said Friday that the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs on July 30 at Del Mar is a goal. The $400,000 Bing Crosby is the leading sprint race at the track’s summer meeting.

Dr. Schivel won the 2021 Bing Crosby and later was second by a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar last November.