INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ellafitz will be loose on the lead Friday night when she tries to wire a small field in the $50,000 Life Is Sweet Stakes at Hollywood Park.
“She’s training well,” Bob Baffert said.
Ellafitz also is the only front-runner in the five-horse field that entered the Life Is Sweet, a restricted stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the main track. The stakes is race 7 on the night card; first post is 7:05 p.m.
Robert Hansan, a resident of Reston, Va., used a bold late bet in the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge handicapping contest on Friday and Saturday at Churchill Downs to grab the top prize of $137,000.
With only the Breeders’ Cup Classic left, Hansan placed his entire bankroll of $7,236 on Blame to win, a wager that returned $44,863. The win vaulted Hansan into first place by a wide margin. James Henry, the second-place finisher, had a bankroll of $30,010.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Denomination, who garnered back-to-back stakes victories at Longchamp in April 2009, looks for her first win in the United States when she returns from a layoff in Friday’s featured eighth race at Aqueduct.
A field of nine older fillies and mares entered the $52,000 race, a third-level optional $75,000 claimer scheduled for one mile on the turf.
Trainer Jerry Hardin died of a heart attack Wednesday morning at his Benton, La., home, according to a number of friends and racing officials in Louisiana. He was 62.
Hardin, an Arkansas native who raced throughout the Southwest, trained for more than 30 years. He raced this past summer at Louisiana Downs and was currently based at Delta Downs.
“He was a super person,” said jockey Don Simington, who often teamed with Hardin. “He was one of the first guys I rode for when I came to Shreveport 25 years ago.”
Gulfstream Park opened its stable area Tuesday, taking in the first horses who will race at the 2011 meeting which begins Jan. 5.
Horses trained by Wesley Ward and Tim Hills were the first to arrive on the grounds. The Palm Meadows barn area located approximately 45 miles north of the track in Boynton Beach opened last week.
Wise Awake, a 5-year-old mare who collected her eighth win of the meet last Tuesday, is among the candidates for 2010 horse of the year at Finger Lakes.
The best performers in various age and class categories will be announced at the local Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association dinner on Nov. 20.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Court of the Realm, trained by Peter Berringer, had been going about his business in relative anonymity through his brief career.
But Court of the Realm’s profile has changed since he reeled off his third straight victory at Woodbine Racetrack last Friday. The Kentucky-bred 3-year-old’s latest Beyer Speed Figure of 98 has caught the eyes of horseplayers and would-be purchasers alike.
“He’s pretty versatile,” said Berringer, who has sent out Court of the Realm to run well on turf and Polytrack at distances ranging from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/16 miles.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – West Ocean might have fit well in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint last Saturday, but discretion came into play. A far less demanding allowance race was just over the Churchill Downs horizon, and besides, her owners, the Wertheimer brothers of France, might have been a bit distracted anyway, what with their Goldikova shooting for – and ultimately achieving – an unprecedented three-peat in the BC Mile.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif.– The three-week gap between the trials for the Los Alamitos Super Derby on Oct. 17 and the $1,052,000 final last Saturday gave Apollitical Jess sufficient time to recover – and run a career-defining race.
A five-week gap between the Super Derby and his next start in the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 11 may lead to a World Championship.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Eugene Melnyk has transferred a string of five horses at Churchill Downs from Ken McPeek to Todd Pletcher, most notably Bridgetown, the fourth-place finisher in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint last weekend.
Bridgetown ran a big race at nearly 14-1 in the BC Turf Sprint when he moved strongly to challenge the race-long front-runner, Central City, in midstretch, only to fade in the final stages to finish 2 3/4 lengths behind the victorious Chamberlain Bridge.
