OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Grade 1 winner Search Results will make her 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap at seven furlongs here.
Search Results won the Grade 1 Acorn in June but has raced only once since, finishing third in the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 7 at Saratoga.
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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Western River, who is a full brother to 2016 Belmont Stakes winner Creator, could make his next start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan on May 14 at Belmont Park, trainer Rodolphe Brisset said Sunday.
Western River was an impressive maiden special weight winner on the Arkansas Derby undercard last Saturday, when he closed from nearly 20 lengths off the pace for a 3 3/4-length victory. Western River covered 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.59 and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 87.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox ushered in the $5.4 million Racing Festival of the South at Oaklawn Park with a bang last Saturday, winning both the $1.25 million Arkansas Derby with Cyberknife and the Grade 3, $400,000 Oaklawn Mile with Fulsome.
“That was huge with those two wins,” Cox said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Morning Matcha began her career last June at Monmouth Park, and the Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Central Banker has been a gal on the go ever since. Saturday, the Parx Racing-based filly returns to New York for the Grade 3, $250,000 Gazelle Stakes trying to earn a spot in the Kentucky Oaks on May 6.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – For a horse that’s won five graded stakes, two of which are Grade 1s, and banked more than $1.4 million, Mind Control seems like he always flies under the radar.
Mind Control again figures to be overlooked when he makes his 6-year-old debut against the likes of Speaker’s Corner, First Captain, and five others in Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap, one of five undercard stakes on the 11-race Wood Memorial program.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Back in 2006, Todd Pletcher got all the way up to 50 starters at the Keeneland spring meet, and that wasn’t a radical outlier. Pletcher ran 47 horses in 2008 and regularly had 30 or more starters during Aprils at Keeneland. That pace slowed considerably in recent years, with Pletcher down to just 13 runners during the spring meet of 2017, but the Hall of Fame trainer said he plans greater participation during this April meeting.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The last few weeks in Florida were the calm before the Chad Brown storm.
Brown has made a habit of using the winter months to mostly prepare for richer races in Kentucky and New York while racing sparingly – a relative term, given the depth of his stable – at Gulfstream Park, where he went 16 for 61 with three stakes wins, and at Tampa Bay Downs, where he was a gaudy 18 for 39, also with three stakes wins.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment, in partnership with Century Mile, has announced the winner of this year’s Grade 3 Canadian Derby will be awarded free entry to the Grade 3 Ontario Derby, with the potential of earning a $50,000 bonus.
The Canadian Derby will be run Aug. 20 at Century Mile in Edmonton, Alberta. The winner will receive free entry to the Oct. 23 Ontario Derby at Woodbine. If a horse captures both events, the winning connections will receive a bonus of $50,000, offered evenly by Woodbine and Century Mile.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The first weekend of April has revived the season of 2021 champion apprentice Jessica Pyfer.
In the first three months of the year, Pyfer had 1 win from 42 mounts at Santa Anita. On Saturday and Sunday, she rode a winner on each program, including a late pickup mount on Pinedale in the fourth race Sunday.
Pyfer said a third-place finish on 23-1 Race Judicata on Friday for her stepfather, trainer Phil D’Amato, provided a boost.
“I rode one for my dad and was third,” she said. “I had so much fun.
