ELMONT, N.Y. – Pocket Square, the 2 1/2-length winner of the Grade 3 Athenia Stakes on Sept. 25, will be pre-entered for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, trainer Chad Brown said over the weekend.
Brown, who initially viewed Pocket Square as a middle-distance horse, has liked the way Pocket Square has performed at 1 1/8 miles in her last two starts, most notably the way she finished the Athenia. The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf is run at 1 3/8 miles.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Joel Rosario is within striking distance of setting single-year records for graded stakes victories and total stakes wins by a jockey.
Rosario, 36, won Saturday’s Grade 2 Sands Point at Belmont Park aboard Fluffy Socks for his 46th graded win of 2021 and his 65th stakes victory overall. Jerry Bailey holds the record for graded stakes wins in one year with 55 in 2003, while Garrett Gomez set the single-year record for total stakes wins with 76 in 2007. The common denominator with all three riders is agent Ron Anderson.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Saffie Joseph reported that Mischevious Alex, winner of the Grade 1 Carter Handicap earlier this year, has been retired and will stand stud next year in Japan.
Mischevious Alex, an easy winner of the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint last winter, finished well back in both the Grade 1 Alfred Vanderbilt and Forego to close out his career. Overall, Mischevious Alex, a son of Into Mischief, captured 7 of 15 starts for earnings of $734,355.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Michelle Hemingway made an auspicious training debut Saturday, bringing the promising 3-year-old Manor House back from a nine-month layoff to win a one-mile allowance. Manor House, making only his third start, ran down odds-on favorite Financial System in the final strides.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The only thing hotter than the weather here this weekend was trainer David Fawkes, who sent out five consecutive winners in less than 24 hours, including the winners of the first three races on Sunday’s card. Four of those victories came over the recently installed Tapeta track.
Mishriff remains a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 6 despite finishing fourth in the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot Racecourse in England on Saturday.
Trainer John Gosden said on Monday that Mishriff was not suited to the good-to-soft turf course at Ascot.
“He didn’t like it,” Gosden said. “They got a little bit of rain that morning.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Essential Quality and Knicks Go, two of the leading contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, both were out for serious work Saturday for trainer Brad Cox at Churchill Downs.
Essential Quality went five furlongs in 1:01 in company, while Knicks Go went a solo half-mile in 49.60 seconds. Both will have two more works at Churchill before being part of a large Kentucky contingent scheduled to be flown Nov. 1 from Indianapolis to California via FedEx.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mark Casse isn’t promising anything on the level of Shamrock Rose, but the Hall of Fame trainer does have an optimistic eye toward the impending renewal of the Raven Run at Keeneland.
“I think we’ve got a couple of pretty good shots,” said Casse, who will send out Miss Speedy and Souper Sensational among the 10 or so 3-year-old fillies expected Saturday for the Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run at Keeneland.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Code of Honor, the 2019 Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, will be pointed to the Grade 2, $200,000 Fayette Stakes on Oct. 30 at Keeneland, trainer Shug McGaughey said Monday. McGaughey is hoping to use the Fayette as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $750,000 Clark Handicap on Nov. 26 at Churchill Downs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Mutamakina and La Dragontea, the first- and second-place finishers in Sunday’s Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine, arrived back at trainer Christophe Clement’s Belmont Park barn Monday morning, and the trainer and his owners will now have some decisions to make in plotting out their futures.
Clement said he didn’t go into the E.P. Taylor with the idea of running either one back in three weeks in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, but said Monday he would need to talk things over with the owners before completely ruling it out.
