STICKNEY, Ill. – The post-Arlington era in Chicago racing has arrived. The landscape looks pretty bleak.
Hawthorne Racecourse, Chicago’s lone surviving track for Thoroughbred or Standardbred racing, commences a 34-day spring meeting Saturday. Purse money actually is decent, but horses are in short supply to start the season and those that wintered in Chicago scarcely have trained.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Forbidden Kingdom will enter the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in top shape following a seven-furlong workout Thursday at Santa Anita that alleviates two potential concerns.
First of all, the Thursday workout renders irrelevant the missed workout two weeks ago due to a fever. As trainer Richard Mandella suggested, it was no big deal. Forever Kingdom has posted two solid works since recovering.
All-sources handle for the 2021-22 Aqueduct winter meet was $358,836,940, a 2.5 percent increase over the 2020-21 meet, the New York Racing Association announced Friday.
There were 50 cards and 438 races run at the 2021-22 winter meet, which ran from Dec. 9, 2021 to March 27. A total of 56 cards had been scheduled, but six were lost due to bad weather. In 2020-21, there were 466 races run over 52 cards. Average field size for the ‘21-22 meet was 7.48 horses per race, compared to 7.42 in ‘20-21.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Christophe Clement will be welcoming back one graded stakes winner while getting ready to say goodbye to another when he sends out Gufo in the Grade 2, $200,000 Pan American Stakes and Beautiful Lover in the Grade 3, $150,000 Orchid Stakes on Saturday’s 10-stakes Florida Derby Day program at Gulfstream.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field of 11 3-year-olds was drawn Wednesday for Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, featuring leading prospects White Abarrio, Simplification, Classic Causeway, and Charge It.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Luis Contreras will be aboard one of the highest profile horses of the Oaklawn Park meet Saturday when he teams with the filly Secret Oath in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby.
The points race for the Kentucky Derby is one of four stakes on the card that launches the annual Racing Festival of the South. This year, major stakes with total purses of $5.4 million will be run throughout the month of April.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Eda will be scratched from the Grade 3, $600,000 Fantasy on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, according to her trainer, Bob Baffert.
Baffert said the Grade 1 winner spiked a slight temperature on Monday.
“Her blood work was not super-perfect, so we didn’t put her on the plane,” he said of the Tuesday flight coming in from Southern California.
Eda's defection makes for a field of eight for the Fantasy.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Steve Asmussen has broken camp at Fair Grounds, and he brought some heavy hitters with him to Oaklawn Park. Jackie’s Warrior, last year’s male sprint champion, and Clairiere, who finished in the top three for champion 3-year-old filly, both are now here, and will make their next starts in coming weeks.
Rodolphe Brisset oversaw Justify’s very early training before he was sent west to Bob Baffert, and on to a Triple Crown. Brisset is not about to make a prediction that We the People can follow in those footsteps, but he’s certainly hoping We the People – who, like Justify, did not race at 2 – can emulate Justify by winning a Grade 1 stakes race in his third start when he makes his stakes debut Saturday in the Arkansas Derby.
Sunland Park Derby winner Slow Down Andy was traveling to Kentucky on Tuesday to begin preparations for the Kentucky Derby, according to his trainer, Doug O’Neill.
Slow Down Andy picked up 50 points for the Kentucky Derby on Sunday with his win in the Sunland Derby. Slow Down Andy also has 10 points from his win in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity in December and ranks fourth on the current points leaderboard with 60.
Slow Down Andy earned a 86 Beyer Speed Figure in the Sunland Derby.
