INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The six juvenile fillies running 1 1/16 miles in the $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes on Sunday at Hollywood Park have much to prove.
May Day Rose has not started since she was fully extended in a maiden sprint at Del Mar two months ago; True Way of Grace finished a distant fifth her first start over a route of ground; and Big Tiz scored a workmanlike maiden win last out.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Whether Sunday’s Glowing Honor overnight stakes at Aqueduct is run on turf or dirt, Ramon Dominguez figures to be riding the favorite.
Dominguez, who easily topped the Belmont fall standings for his 10th title from the last 11 New York Racing Association meets, is listed on main track only Qualia, who would be odds-on if the race is switched to the dirt.
If it remains a two-turn mile on turf as scheduled, Dominguez will be reunited with Strike the Bell and will have to call on his considerable positional expertise to work out a trip from post 10.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Reade Baker will be wearing two hats for the next couple of weeks, training his horses here at Woodbine in the morning and then heading downtown to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair to show his ducks and chickens.
Baker also has started his annual exodus to Palm Meadows in Florida, with eight horses already having shipped down from nearby Adena Springs North.
“After this, I’ll be sending out horses as soon as they’ve run their last race here,” said Baker. “They’ll be going in dribs and drabs.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse has a trio of 2-year-olds for Sunday’s $250,000 Coronation Futurity at Woodbine, Withdrawal, Strike Oil and Enduring Star. The Coronation was once a barometer for success in the prestigious Queen’s Plate, but the race, a nine-furlong route for Canadian-breds has not produced a Plate player since 2004.
Withdrawal is the most accomplished of the Casse runners. He was unplaced in his first two starts in July, which were both in restricted sprints stakes.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rightly So, the 3-1 morning-line favorite, has been scratched from Friday's $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs because of an unspecified soundness issue.
Trainer Tony Dutrow said he "was very disappointed" that Rightly So, owned by Zayat Stables of Ahmed Zayat, was ordered scratched by a team of equine veterinarians that conduct prerace examinations for all Breeders' Cup starters.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Crown of Thorns, a leading contender for Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, was scratched from the race on Friday after he developed a recurrence of an old injury to his right knee.
"He had an old knee problem crop up, nothing serious, but he can’t run on it," trainer Richard Mandella said Friday morning. "He’s had his issues through his life; it’s nothing terrible but it’s a problem that cropped up, so we’re out."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jockey Garrett Gomez escaped serious injury Thursday after being thrown to the Churchill Downs turf in a sixth-race spill when his mount, Indy Bouquet, broke down early on the second turn of the one-mile race.
Gomez was immobilized by track medical personnel and transported to Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville, where a report, coming from agent Ron Anderson an hour after the spill, was positive.
"I think he's dodged a bullet," Anderson said. "He's a little sore in his [right] shoulder."
LOUISVILLE, Ky.- The following is the final report card for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup card from observations I have made here at Churchill Downs over the past two weeks.
Juvenile Turf
Master of Hounds: Was not crazy about the way this top European contender got over the turf, both warming up before and during Thursday’s three-furlong blow-out.
