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.
The ownership of Bye Bye Bobby has made the Sunland Park Derby runner-up eligible to the Triple Crown, trainer Todd Fincher said Tuesday.
The late nomination period for the 3-year-old series closed on Monday. Fincher said B4 Farms LLC made the horse eligible at a cost of $6,000.
Bye Bye Bobby earned 20 Kentucky Derby qualifying points for his second-place finish to Slow Down Andy in the Sunland Derby on Sunday. He was beaten a half-length.
Slow Down Andy and Bye Bye Bobby both earned 86 Beyer Speed Figures in the Sunland Derby.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - After missing a scheduled work on Sunday due to a minor setback earlier in the week, White Abarrio got in his final work for Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby on Tuesday morning at Gulfstream Park, an easy three furlongs in 34.89 over a very fast track shortly after the second renovation break.
White Abarrio, who has not started since his impressive 4 1/2-length victory over Simplication in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Feb. 5, galloped out with plenty of energy after completing his drill, going a half-mile in 47.12 before easing up five panels in 1:00.85.
With the exception of the return of turf racing – scheduled to begin April 7 – and one blockbuster card on April 9, Aqueduct’s 15-day spring meet, which begins Thursday and runs through April 24, figures to look very similar to the four-month winter meet that concluded Sunday.
Dylan Davis hopes there are no changes atop the jockey standings this spring after statistics reset on Thursday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Cristian Torres will be sidelined for a couple of weeks due to injuries sustained Sunday, agent Ruben Munoz said.
Torres was thrown from his mount, Big On Broadway, in the fifth race at Oaklawn. Munoz said the rider has been diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his tailbone and on the inside of his right ankle.
Big On Broadway, who was racing along the rail, shied from something, according to the stewards at Oaklawn. They said they were informed the horse did not sustain serious injury.
