OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Bill Mott has been chasing a victory in the prestigious Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap his entire career. Perhaps, 2022 is the year.
Mott will point Speaker’s Corner, uber-impressive winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct, to the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 11 at Belmont Park. From 1992 through 2020, Mott has run 11 horses in the Met Mile, with third-place finishes from To Honor and Serve and Flat Out as his best results.
Prevalence, long well regarded, appears to be on an upswing that saw him notch his first graded stakes victory on Saturday at Keeneland.
The Godolphin homebred won the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 98. That figure is just shy of the career-best 99 he posted in an allowance-level win in March at Gulfstream Park.
On Sunday morning at Keeneland, trainer Brendan Walsh said that Prevalence - and his other two Saturday winners, including maiden victor Emirates Road, a half-brother to Prevalence - emerged in good order.
Oaklawn Park leading rider David Cabrera will likely miss the remainder of the meet and the early part of the Lone Star Park season due to injuries sustained in a Friday spill, agent Jose Santos Jr., said Saturday.
Cabrera hit the ground hard after being thrown from his fallen mount in the first race, and remained in St. Vincent Hospital in Hot Springs, Ark., on Saturday morning. Santos said more has been learned about the extent of Cabrera’s injuries as his ability to communicate improved overnight and he was able to identify areas of pain.
Oaklawn leading rider David Cabrera, who was thrown from his mount in the first race Friday, was to remain in the hospital overnight and likely will not ride through next Saturday, according to his agent, Jose Santos Jr.
Santos said Friday night that Cabrera remains in the intensive-care unit. He was awaiting more specific details on the rider’s condition, but said a concern is internal bleeding. Santos said Cabrera is conscious and moving his extremities. He said there are no known broken bones.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Coming off a strong winter meet and a solid start to the spring season at Aqueduct, trainer Jeffrey Englehart plans to have a stronger presence in New York on a year-round basis.
Englehart won 10 races from 62 starters during the Aqueduct winter meet. After five days of the 15-day Aqueduct spring meet, Englehart has won four races from 12 starts to top the trainer standings.
Stilleto Boy, third in three consecutive Grade 1 races since Christmas, recently resumed workouts after a brief vacation in March. Trainer Ed Moger Jr. said Friday that the 4-year-old Stilleto Boy is under consideration for the Grade 2 Californian Stakes on April 30 or the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup on May 30.
Mackinnon, a two-time stakes winner on turf last year, is scheduled to rejoin trainer Doug O’Neill’s stable this weekend after a brief rest.
Mackinnon was second by a neck to Blackadder in the El Camino Real Derby at 1 1/8 miles on the synthetic track at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 12. O’Neill said Mackinnon will return to turf racing this spring.
Last November, Mackinnon was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar. O’Neill said he is hopeful Mackinnon can return to a Breeders’ Cup race, possibly this November at Keeneland.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The East Coast-based jockey Isaac Castillo made his Oaklawn debut on Thursday, finishing second in the opener aboard Beyond the Hype. Agent Dylan Fazio said that Castillo is set to ride at Oaklawn for the remainder of the meet, which runs through May 8.
Castillo will then return to Monmouth Park, where he finished second in the standings last year. Fazio said the jockey rode first call for Jerry Hollendorfer at Monmouth and that the trainer’s assistant Dan Ward encouraged Castillo to come to Oaklawn.
