LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Letruska, the consensus leader atop the North American filly-mare division, was scheduled to arrive in the wee hours of Sunday morning at Keeneland following a van ride from Monmouth Park in New Jersey.
Trainer Fausto Gutierrez, speaking Friday by phone from the Keeneland September yearling sale in Lexington, said Letruska has “been doing very good” since being sent to Monmouth shortly after she won the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on the Aug. 28 Travers card at Saratoga.
Due to COVID it has been a tough couple of years at Hastings and a struggle to put together cards on most days of the current meet. Horses left to race in other jurisdictions when there was uncertainty about how many actual days were going to be run, as did many of the jockeys who normally ride in Vancouver.
However, you would not know how grim it is by the optimism shown by some of the people in the local industry. Most of the optimism comes from the results of the annual Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s, British Columbia Division, yearling and mixed sale held Tuesday.
The much-anticipated opening of the new Tapeta racing surface at Gulfstream Park, scheduled for next Thursday, has been postponed for approximately one week, track management announced early Friday morning. Entries for the first day of Tapeta racing were scheduled to have been drawn Friday afternoon.
The California Horse Racing Board has proposed a rule that will limit owners and trainers to one claim per horse instead of the current limit of two.
The racing board approved the measure at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, but the proposal must undergo public review before the board votes on the matter again. The proposed rule change must then undergo legal review by state officials before being implemented, which is several months away at the earliest.
Santa Anita has raised the purses of 20 stakes for its 2021-2022 winter-spring meeting from 2020-2021 levels, with significant increases for Grade 1 races for older horses and Triple Crown preps.
The track released its stakes schedule on Thursday for the marathon meeting, which runs from Dec. 26 to June 19, 2022. The meet will have 15 programs featuring three or more stakes.
Santa Anita will have a gap of one or two race weeks without racing at its upcoming winter-spring meeting, according to a 2022 racing calendar approved on Wednesday by the California Horse Racing Board.
Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting runs from Dec. 26 through June 19. There is no racing scheduled on the week of April 15-17. It was not clear on Wednesday whether racing would be held April 22-24, according to Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Lone Rock figures to be heavily favored against five opponents when he seeks his fifth consecutive victory in Saturday’s $300,000 Grand Prix American Jockey Club Invitational at 1 5/8 miles on dirt.
Lone Rock has won seven of his last eight races, including the Grade 2 Brooklyn by 11 1/4 lengths here June 5. More recently, Lone Rock won the Birdstone Stakes, a 1 3/4-mile race at Saratoga, by four lengths on Aug. 4.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Simon Callaghan will be on a fact-finding mission of sorts when he ships Madone cross country for Saturday’s $700,000 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational at Belmont Park.
Madone, a daughter of Vancouver, has recorded all five of her victories at a mile, including the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes on July 24 at Del Mar. The Jockey Club Oaks is at 1 3/8 miles, the farthest Madone will have run.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Satoshi Kobayashi wasn’t exactly enthused when he learned that Bolshoi Ballet was a late addition to the field for Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Derby Invitational at Belmont Park. Kobayashi trains Tokyo Gold, who is among eight entered in the Jockey Club Derby, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds.
“What the mess,” a smiling Kobayashi said, putting a G-rated spin on an oft-uttered three-word phrase that ends with an expletive.
Mackinnon won his stakes debut in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf on Sept. 6 and could have his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Nov. 5 at Del Mar.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said forthcoming workouts will determine whether Mackinnon starts in the $200,000 Zuma Beach Stakes at a mile on turf on Oct. 3 at Santa Anita or is trained toward the BC Juvenile Turf.
“We’ve got options,” O’Neill said. “The more time in between races the better. It’s a strong temptation to wait, but if he’s coming out of his skin we’ll have to consider” the Zuma Beach.
