INGLEWOOD, Calif. – For a jockey not at Churchill Downs this weekend, jockey Joe Talamo could be in the right place. He will be in high demand at Hollywood Park on Friday and Saturday with many rivals from the jockeys’ room out of town.
Friday, Talamo rides Muny in the $55,000 Riot in Paris Stakes over a mile on turf. A 5-year-old gelding, Muny won the 2008 Oak Tree Derby at Santa Anita, but lost his next four starts before winning a $50,000 claimer on Oct. 16 in his 2010 debut.
Steve Asmussen plans to send a 30-horse stable to California in December to race at the Santa Anita Park meet, Asmussen said on Wednesday at Churchill Downs. Scott Blasi, Asmussen’s longtime assistant trainer, will oversee the Santa Anita string.
Asmussen’s move coincides with the installation of a new dirt surface at Santa Anita. The new racetrack is expected to be ready for training in early December.
“We don’t want to be guinea pigs or anything, but we’ll get out there after the dirt is in,” Asmussen said.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Jockey Luis A. Gonzalez won the 2,500th race of his career Tuesday at Thistledown, when he guided Avaryl's Pal to a 5 3/4-length victory in the fifth race for trainer Brad Sparks.
Gonzalez, a 43-year-old native of Panama City, Panama, began his career in 1984 and won his first race aboard Sinbad for trainer Gerald Sweatt on Aug. 8 of that year. He has career mount earnings of more than $24 million. One of his biggest career wins came in the 1989 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The last Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs left all except the hardest contrarian awash in satisfaction. Ouija Board was a chalky 7-5 winner in 2006, and the victory − which followed a win in the 2004 running and a second in 2005 − reminded American racing fans what a world-class grass horse looks like. Another one has come to Churchill this week, and Midday will be strongly favored to succeed where Ouija Board failed by winning the Filly and Mare Turf for the second year in a row.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nothing, it seems, can stop Zenyatta. Not even a semi.
When she left Barn 41 at Churchill Downs on Wednesday morning, Zenyatta began down a path toward the racetrack when she suddenly came face to face with the cab of a truck, whose driver apparently didn’t realize that it was training hours and millions of dollars worth of horses, not to mention the riders perched on their backs, were moving about. Zenyatta was moving forward, a large entourage following right behind. There was only one solution to this stare down. The semi moved back.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Colizeo wasn’t quite good enough for any of the Triple Crown races, and Apart wasn’t quite ready enough. Jackson Bend was good and ready, although with the benefit of hindsight, he might be paying for it now.
With those instructive months in the rearview mirror, that trio of 3-year-olds will get together Friday at Churchill Downs in the Grade 3 Ack Ack Handicap, the main lead-in to the six Breeders’ Cup events.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. had a hectic morning Tuesday.
“We entered in $7.35 million in races in one day,” he said. “That doesn’t happen too often.”
Among his entries were Blame in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic and J.B.’s Thunder in the $2 million Juvenile. But the Stall condition book was not limited to championship races at Churchill Downs. Star Guitar was also in the entry box Tuesday for Friday’s $100,000 Gold Cup at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was 7 in the morning here at Churchill Downs on Wednesday when trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s phone rang, with Hollywood Park-based assistant Dan Ward on the line. Not 30 seconds later, the phone rang again, with his wife, Janet, based at Golden Gate Fields, checking in with updates on the horses Hollendorfer has there. It’s true. You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Hollendorfer.
“I get up at 3 every day,” he said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the vast majority of horse races, there are question marks among the past performances of the entrants, ranging anywhere from whether a prospective runner can handle an untried distance to perhaps another’s potential effectiveness with a change in racing surface.
Friday’s Grade 3, $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Churchill Downs presents those specific unknowns, plus a whole lot more. At 1 3/4 miles on dirt, the race is atypical, and the outcome appears as murky as the Ohio River that flows past downtown Louisville.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Owner Andrew Rosen hopes that Breeders’ Cup success runs in the family.
Twenty-six years ago, Rosen’s family won the first-ever Breeders’ Cup race when Chief’s Crown took the 1984 Juvenile at Hollywood Park. Five years ago, Merv Griffin’s Stevie Wonderboy won the 22nd Juvenile at Belmont Park.
