LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Golden Pal, winner of Breeders' Cup races in 2020 and 2021, is the undisputed leader of the North American turf sprint ranks. Five horses who chased him home last time out are part of a field of 13 entered for the Grade 2, $500,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Friday at Churchill Downs.
The Twin Spires is slotted as the race immediately preceding the Kentucky Oaks, as race 10 of 13.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- When Brian Hernandez Jr. won the first race held over the new Churchill turf course Saturday night with a 3-year-old colt named Stitched, he completed an extraordinary double.
“I also won the last race run over the old course,” said Hernandez, referring to a victory aboard Navratilova in the Tepin Stakes on June 26, 2021, the final day of racing here last spring. “Pretty neat.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Zandon drew post 10 and was made the 3-1 morning-line favorite, and Epicenter landed post 3 and was installed the second choice at 7-2, as a full field of 20, plus two also-eligibles, had posts assigned Monday afternoon at Churchill Downs for the 148th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Likely, no one is going to feel especially sorry for Brad Cox this week. On Monday, Cox entered three horses – Cyberknife, Zozos, and Tawny Port – in the Kentucky Derby, and his stable is loaded with stakes-quality horses. One of those is the 3-year-old filly Juju’s Map, set to make her 2022 debut Friday in a second-level two-turn allowance race against older horses.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When the colt Justify came to the Kentucky Derby in 2018, one might have mistaken the racing pages for tales of classical mythology or reports on the late-60s space program.
“Apollo.” You couldn’t walk down the hall for a drink of water without hearing that name. It was 1882 when a colt named Apollo won the Kentucky Derby, and 136 years later he still was the only Derby winner who hadn’t raced as a 2-year-old.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunday morning on the backstretch at Santa Anita, jockey Brice Blanc ran into jockey and exercise rider Sophia Barandela, who asked how his weekend was going.
“I was in San Francisco yesterday and I ride a couple today,” Blanc said.
Blanc is plain guilty of underselling his weekend.
Saturday at Golden Gate Fields, Blanc won that track’s richest race aboard Evening Sun in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile, a $254,050 race on turf.
GEORGETOWN, Ky. – The paved road on which visitors make their entrance bisects paddocks that this time of year – having been fed by rain in preceding months – are a shade of green that make your eyes hurt. Inside those prominent paddocks are horses who won major stakes and millions of dollars. There are many horses like that here at Old Friends Farm, many too who weren’t famous at all.
The FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes for 2-year-olds sired by accredited stallions in Florida will begin with the $100,000 Dr. Fager and the $100,000 Desert Vixen for fillies on Aug. 6. Both races are at six furlongs.
They next two races in the series are at seven furlongs on Sept. 3, with the $200,000 Affirmed and $200,000 Susan’s Girl for fillies leading up to the $400,000 In Reality and $400,000 My Dear Girl for fillies. The 1 1/16-mile In Reality and My Dear Girl will be held Oct. 1.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was heartbreak on Kentucky Derby entry morning for the one-eyed New York-bred gelding Un Ojo, who was not entered for Saturday's classic after emerging from his final work with a bruised hoof.
Trainer Ricky Courville characterized the issue as a minor one with terrible timing.
"He'll live to fight another day," said Courville, who would have been saddling his first Kentucky Derby starter.
