ELMONT, N.Y. – Coming off wins in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, Super Chunky’s tour of the East Coast brings him to New York for Sunday’s $70,000 Basket Weave Stakes at Belmont Park.
Super Chunky has made only five of his 17 career starts on turf, but he has three wins and two seconds in those races, all at sprint distances. His two losses came to stakes horses Hatfield and Phosphorescent.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Lookin At Lucky returned to racetrack training at Hollywood Park on Friday, six days after his win in the Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park and four weeks before the biggest test of his career in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.
Lookin At Lucky jogged a circuit on the main track, but wanted to do more.
“He jogged but he mostly galloped,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He was pretty fresh.”
Sunday’s $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park has attracted horses from France, Canada, California, Kentucky, and New York.
“It’s one of the last times you can race with 3-year-olds only, for that kind of money,” said Fabrice Chappet, a French-based trainer who will send out Paris Vegas.
MIAMI – Owner-trainer Ernest Oare is holding a dispersal sale of all his racing stock on Oct. 19th in Ocala. He’ll give potential buyers a chance to get one last look at some of his best merchandise when running three of those 34 horses over the next week at Calder, including Pick Six in Sunday’s $41,300 allowance feature.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Does 9-year-old Trick of the North still have what it takes to win the Grade 3, $100,000 Premier’s for the second year in a row? We’ll find out when he runs in the 1 3/8-mile feature at Hastings on Sunday.
OCEANPORT, N.J. − While there are no stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday, the 11-race card does offer a trio of second-level optional claimers, each worth $55,000.
There is a sprint for New Jersey-breds and a turf route for fillies and mares. On the main track, the first of the three co-features drew a field of eight, including five carrying a $40,000 tag for the 1 1/16 miles.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Dale Romans took some of his best horses to Saratoga this summer, although Paddy O’Prado and First Dude stayed behind to train at his main Churchill Downs base. It may or may not be revealing that a promising 2-year-old turf horse named Z Appeal also stayed in Louisville, although, at the very least, he was keeping excellent company.
“I thought maybe he could learn a little something by watching those good horses,” joked Romans.
Northern California’s all-time leading trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, went seven years from 2001 to 2008 without running a horse at the Big Fresno Fair.
Hollendorfer still doesn’t send many horses to Fresno, but he will send out a multiple graded stakes-winning mare, Rated Fiesty, in Sunday’s $50,000 Harvest Stakes. The six-furlong race is the final stakes sprint for older fillies and mares this year in Northern California.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario − Five shippers from Europe and four from the U.S. are among the prospective field of 12 in Saturday’s Grade 1, $2 million Canadian International at Woodbine.
The first wave of the European contingent − Arctic Cosmos, Redwood, Chinchon, and More Wells − is scheduled to arrive from overseas Tuesday. Joshua Tree is expected to arrive Wednesday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Reade Baker should be loaded for bear in Sunday’s $225,000 Grey Stakes at Woodbine, when he runs Bear’s Future and Rockin Heat in the 1 1/16-mile route for 2-year-olds.
Bear’s Future won both of his races convincingly over seven furlongs, including the Sept. 12 Swynford Stakes, for which he got a Beyer Speed Figure of 75.
Baker is confident that Bear’s Future, a son of Rockport Harbor, will handle two turns.
“He acts like it would probably be better for him,” said Baker. “He’s bred that way too. He’s very laid-back.”