Jockey Luis Saez, who ranks as North America’s fourth leading rider by mount earnings in 2025, is scheduled to winter at Oaklawn Park, according to his agent, Kiaran McLaughlin.
This will be the first time the rider has been based in Hot Springs, Ark. Oaklawn puts on a holiday meet from Dec. 12 to Jan. 4. Following a three-week break, racing resumes and will be held from Jan. 30 to May 2.
The owner of Hastings Racecourse & Casino in Vancouver, British Columbia, has reached a “definitive agreement” to sell the casino operation at the track, progressing to a final stage in making the sale.
Great Canadian Entertainment, the owner of the track and casino, said that the agreement to sell the casino to the Tsliel-Waututh Nation is still subject to “customary closing condition and approvals.” The two sides first signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the sale in June.
All-sources handle at the Belmont at the Big A meet that ran from Sept. 11 through Nov. 2 was $235,332,799, down 10.3 percent from the 2024 meet figure of $262,241,609, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.
Each meet consisted of 30 racing days (after cancellations), with the 2025 meet conducting 280 races compared to 285 in 2024.
Both meets were blessed by good weather which forced only seven scheduled turf races at each one to be transferred to the dirt. There were 130 turf races run this fall compared to 126 during the 2024 fall season.
Wolfie’s Dynaghost didn’t race between March 2024 and June 2025 but has come back a tiger at age 7. His first start for trainer Brian Lynch came Saturday at Churchill and yielded a front-running, 2 3/4-length victory in the River City Stakes. Wolfie’s Dynaghost beat 10 rivals and got a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, close to his career best.
“He’d been touting himself,” Lynch said.
Lynch will take Wolfie’s Dynaghost to Florida and aim for the Dec. 20 Fort Lauderdale at Gulfstream as a possible prep for the Pegasus World Cup Turf.
Ben Colebrook trains a stable of fewer than 20 runners, but three are 2-year-olds who could make their presence felt in 2026.
Percy’s Bar will get a winter break after a troubled third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. After being disqualified from first to second in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland, a race in which she was best, Percy’s Bar got brushed on the first turn of the Juvenile Fillies, then mugged in upper stretch, still finishing with interest for third.
While a minor illness cost division leader Sovereignty a chance to face older rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, his fellow 3-year-olds hardly covered themselves in Classic glory. Journalism, the Preakness winner, finished fourth, while Baeza, the Pennsylvania Derby winner, was sixth. Nevada Beach, hero of the Goodwood Stakes, finished seventh.
That’s not to say the sophomore set won’t eventually catch up to their elders, and Magnitude will get his chance against older rivals Nov. 28 at Churchill in the Grade 2, $600,000 Clark Stakes.
Mr. A. P., California’s top 2-year-old, based on the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile result, is done for the season. Now the connections of runner-up Mr. A. P. can start dreaming about next spring.
Claimed for $150,000 by David Wilson and trainer Vladimir Cerin from his runner-up debut in July at Del Mar, Mr. A. P. has emerged as a division leader. He won a maiden route Oct. 13 at Santa Anita and 18 days later finished second to Ted Noffey in the BC Juvenile.
Mr. A. P. earned $392,000 in three starts since he was claimed. He also earned a winter vacation.
Lovesick Blues and Big City Lights, California-bred stakes winners who could have given Man O Rose a battle in The Chosen Vron Stakes last Saturday at Del Mar had they not run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, are being pointed to their next starts. Lovesick Blues and Big City Lights finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in the BC Sprint on Nov. 1.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Kopion has run her final race. The outstanding 4-year-old filly has been retired from racing following a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, trainer Richard Mandella said Saturday at Del Mar.
“She came out of the race fine, but they’re going to breed her,” Mandella said, referring to the filly’s owner Spendthrift Farm. Kopion was scheduled to return to Santa Anita on Sunday, and fly to Spendthrift, in Kentucky, on Tuesday. A stallion for Kopion has not been announced.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Attfield passed his distance test Friday at Aqueduct, taking advantage of a ground-saving trip under Ricardo Santana Jr. to win the $150,000 Central Park Stakes by a half-length over favored Noble Dynasty. It was a neck back to pacesetting Honey Dutch in third.
There was a dead heat for fourth between Jutland and Beach Ballad.
After a win and a third in a pair of turf sprints, Attfield successfully stretched to 1 1/16 miles in the Central Park, something trainer Tom Morley wasn’t overly confident his horse would be able to do.
