Fri, 05/20/2022 - 13:44

Brickyard Ride has stakes options for next start

Benoit Photo
Brickyard Ride wins the Kona Gold Stakes on April 30 at Santa Anita. He has won four races in a row, all stakes.

Brickyard Ride, unbeaten in four stakes this year, worked five furlongs in a rapid 59 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday for an undetermined race later this month.

Brickyard Ride had the fastest of 19 works at the distance.

Fri, 05/20/2022 - 13:34

Bravo to ride on East Coast between Santa Anita and Del Mar meets

Emily Shields
Joe Bravo has won 52 races since moving to California last summer, including the April 9 Echo Eddie Stakes at Santa Anita aboard Smuggler's Run.

Jockey Joe Bravo plans to ride at Monmouth Park and other Eastern tracks during the month-long gap between the conclusion of the Santa Anita meeting on June 19 and the start of the Del Mar summer season on July 22.

On Friday, Bravo described the forthcoming trip as a “working vacation,” and a temporary departure from Southern California.

“I’ll definitely be there for the start of Del Mar,” he said.

Fri, 05/20/2022 - 11:43

Alex Bregman over the moon with Cadillac Candy, first Thoroughbred winner

A last-gasp victory by Cadillac Candy at even-money in the first race Thursday evening at Churchill triggered mainstream sports-media coverage that it would not have otherwise gotten. That’s because the 2-year-old colt represents the first-ever Thoroughbred winner owned by Alex Bregman, the All-Star third baseman for the Houston Astros.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Bregman said in a locker-room interview posted shortly after the race on Twitter. “My whole family is fired up. Going back to when my grandfather used to take me to the races, it’s just exciting.”

Fri, 05/20/2022 - 11:33

Despite big win, DeVaux taking her time with Bout Time

Barbara D. Livingston
Cherie DeVaux, a former assistant to Chad Brown, won races with the 2-year-old fillies Veruca and Bayerness at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Cherie DeVaux has set a high bar for herself. A resounding victory by a 4-year-old filly named Bout Time last Sunday on the Churchill Downs turf might have had another trainer speaking in superlatives, but DeVaux took a more clinical approach.

“She’s a nice filly, really pleasant to train,” said DeVaux. “We’ll probably just go back in a ‘two-other-than’ allowance, either here or in New York, depending on what comes up for her.”

Fri, 05/20/2022 - 10:55

Scratches and changes from Friday's day-before-Preakness card at Pimlico

Coady Photography
The scratch of Lil Kings Princess from the Allaire duPont Stakes on Friday at Pimlico might change the complexion of the race.

BALTIMORE, Md. -- There were only a handful of scratches out of the main fields on Friday's stakes-loaded card Friday at Pimlico. The 14-race program begins at 10:30 a.m.

The most key of scratches out of the day's six stakes races as of 10 a.m. was Lil Kings Princess out of the Grade 3, $150,000 Allaire duPont Distaff. Not only does that leave a field of just five fillies set to contest the race, it removes a key pace opponent for morning-line favorite Super Quick.

Also in the duPont, Click to Confirm is a four-pound overweight.

Fri, 05/20/2022 - 09:12

Trainers preparing for high temperatures at Pimlico

Barbara D. Livingston
Adare Manor was given electrolytes on Thursday to help prepare her for Friday's expected heat during the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

BALTIMORE – Trainers and officials at Pimlico were preparing Friday morning as best they could for the blazing heat forecast to descend on this area both Friday and Saturday, when temperatures were predicted to rise to the low-90s for the Black-Eyed Susan card on Friday and as high as 97 for the Preakness card on Saturday.

Sean McCarthy, who trains Black-Eyed Susan favorite Adare Manor, said he had given Adare Manor electrolytes on Thursday, and on Friday would give her “water like normal.”

Thu, 05/19/2022 - 17:07

Rispoli decides to return to California

Emily Shields
Umberto Rispoli has been riding at the Keeneland meet and at Churchill Downs.

Jockey Umberto Rispoli is returning to California to ride on a full-time basis after having moved to Kentucky earlier this spring.

Rispoli is booked on two mounts at Santa Anita on Sunday. He will be represented by Tony Matos, who will continue to book mounts on behalf of Edwin Maldonado. Rispoli was previously represented in California by Scotty McClellan.

Thu, 05/19/2022 - 12:11

Yakteen not letting a little fatigue ruin his first Preakness

Emily Shields
Tim Yakteen saddled Messier and Taiba for the Kentucky Derby, and is back two weeks later with Armagnac in the Preakness.

BALTIMORE – Two weeks after making his first Kentucky Derby walkover as a trainer of record, Tim Yakteen is back for the Preakness Stakes.

He brings in new a face in Armagnac while his Derby starters, Messier and Taiba, rest from their efforts.

"I'm exhausted," Yakteen said. "It's been exciting for the whole team."

Thu, 05/19/2022 - 11:58

Preakness: Bobo enjoying the view from the other side with Simplification

Barbara D. Livingston
Simplification, fourth in the Kentucky Derby and a top contender in the Preakness, is the first Triple Crown starter owned by Tami Bobo.

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Tami Bobo has built her career around trading young horses, and she sold a Kentucky Derby starter a decade ago. Now, a colt she held on to is giving her a first taste of the Triple Crown as an owner.

Simplification, a creditable fourth in the Kentucky Derby, was the first Preakness Stakes candidate on the grounds at Pimlico last week. He is the first to carry Bobo’s silks – featuring a padlock and key, in a nod to her Secure Investments business moniker – in a Triple Crown event.

Thu, 05/19/2022 - 10:19

Nevin suspended seven days for My Boy Tate medication overage

Barbara D. Livingston
My Boy Tate was disqualified from his victory in the Leon Reed Memorial last October at Finger Lakes for an overage of the corticosteroid prednisolone.

Trainer Michelle Nevin on Sunday will begin serving a seven-day suspension for an overage of the therapeutic medication prednisolone found in My Boy Tate after he won the $50,000 Leon Reed Memorial Stakes at Finger Lakes last Oct. 11. Prednisolone is a corticosteroid that is a Class 4 drug, the second-lowest on the classification system used by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.