OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Quality Road enhanced his chances of making it to the Kentucky Derby by galloping 1 3/8 miles over Belmont Park's training track Wednesday morning after having a new patch applied to the quarter crack on his right hind foot.
It was just the third time Quality Road was able to gallop since he won the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 28, a race from which Quality Road emerged with the quarter crack, according to trainer Jimmy Jerkens.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Hold Me Back was assigned post 10 as the 3-1 morning-line favorite among a field of 11 3-year-olds entered Wednesday at Keeneland for the 85th running of the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes on Saturday.
Theregoesjojo, the second choice at 7-2 on the morning line, was assigned post 3, while Charitable Man, the 4-1 third choice, will start from post 9 in the 1 1/8-mile Polytrack race.
The Blue Grass, the ninth of 10 Saturday races, will be televised live by TVG and on tape delay by ESPN2. Scheduled post is 5:15 p.m. Eastern.
OPELOUSAS, La. - Wednesday's opening night program will usher in a new age at Evangeline Downs: the age of turf racing.
The long-awaited grass course will be added to a track that has bucked industry trends in both business and number of runners in recent years. Total handle has increased each season since Evangeline moved to its new location, 20 miles north of its former site, in 2005. The track also says it has led the nation in number of starters per race for the last two years.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Ziegfeld, who was the runner-up in the $100,000 Rushaway Stakes last month at Turfway Park, will make his next start in the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby, trainer Dale Romans said Tuesday. The horse was to van to Oaklawn Park from his Churchill Downs base on Wednesday.
Maryland's racetracks and its horsemen have reached agreements with three large national account-wagering companies that resolve issues that had threatened to put a stop to betting by account-wagering customers in the state, according to track and horsemen officials.
Alan Foreman, legal counsel for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said the agreements with twinspires.com, XpressBet, and Youbet.com will run through 2010 after being resolved Tuesday. Foreman would not offer specifics, other than the expiration date.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Carlsbad, the undefeated 3-year-old filly and four-time stakes winner, is likely to start in a $100,000 sprint stakes in early May. The venue remained uncertain as of Tuesday.
Trainer Jeff Mullins said Carlsbad is a candidate for two Grade 3 races - the Eight Belles Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 2 or the Railbird Stakes over seven furlongs at Hollywood Park on May 9.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - If Southern California-invader Papa Clem runs a big race Saturday in the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita is going to look like the king of this year's Triple Crown prep races. Pioneerof the Nile won the Feb. 7 stakes at Santa Anita by a half-length over Papa Clem, while it was another length back in third to I Want Revenge.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Every so often, a serious horse comes along late to crash the Kentucky Derby party.
He's the horse that some futures bettors can't precisely pinpoint but are relying on as their "all others" pick in February and March. In the last 10 years, Derby winners Charismatic and War Emblem were the prototypes, the ones that seemingly came from nowhere to ultimately defeat horses who had been all the rage on the long Derby trail.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Imperial Council may have proven to be his own worst enemy in Saturday's Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, acting up terribly before the race, in part leading to his fifth-place finish that left him off the Kentucky Derby trail.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Eibar Coa packed his tack at the conclusion of Sunday's Gulfstream Park program in preparation for his return to New York Wednesday at Aqueduct. Coa will leave town following a roller-coaster week that began with his disqualification aboard Big Drama in Gulfstream Park's Grade 2 Swale on March 28 and ended last Saturday in the Hawthorne winner's circle with the Kentucky Derby-bound Musket Man after an impressive triumph in the Illinois Derby.