Hit the Road, winner of the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile in March, will have a new jockey for his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
John Velazquez will ride Hit the Road for the first time in the BC Mile, replacing Florent Geroux, trainer Dan Blacker said Friday. Blacker did not elaborate on the decision.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association has scheduled 202 days of racing for 2022, with a schedule that is very much in line with what was run in 2021, the company announced Thursday.
The January-through-March portion of the Aqueduct winter meet will consist of 46 days from Jan. 1 through March 27. Racing will be conducted four days a week in January and February and three days a week in March. The only notable change is there will not be live racing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 17).
Kiss Today Goodbye, winner of the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita last December but winless in three starts this year, is nearing a comeback.
Trainer Eric Kruljac said the 4-year-old Kiss Today Goodbye is a candidate for the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Nov. 20 at Del Mar. Kiss Today Goodbye has not raced since he finished last of eight in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar in July.
Led by three recent North American stakes winners, Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing plans to send six horses to Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar.
Trainer Charlie Appleby said Thursday that Godolphin will be represented with two runners in the BC Turf, Juvenile Turf, and Mile.
Yibir, winner of the Jockey Club Derby on Sept. 18 at Belmont Park in his U.S. debut, and Walton Street, who won the Grade 1 Canadian International on Sept. 18 at Woodbine in his first start on this continent, will run in the BC Turf at 1 1/2 miles.
ELMONT, N.Y. – An equipment change may have helped Double Thunder work his way into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Double Thunder, a two-time stakes winner who finished second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland two weeks ago, was equipped with blinkers Thursday morning when he worked four furlongs in 49.81 seconds at Belmont Park. Double Thunder worked in company with the debut-winning 2-year-old filly Sweet as Pie, getting his last quarter in 24.54 and galloping out five furlongs in 1:03.06 and six furlongs in 1:15.85 over a relatively slow-playing training track.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – He’s not finished yet. Chad Brown is represented in both stakes Saturday at Keeneland, where the New York-based trainer has flaunted the depth of his stable during the first two weekends of the 17-day fall meet.
Brown will send out Zainalarab in the Raven Run Stakes and Pipeline in the Perryville. Both stakes are at seven furlongs, with the Raven Run for 3-year-old fillies and the Perryville for 3-year-olds.
Golden Gate Fields racing secretary Patrick Mackey couldn’t be more excited about the start of a meeting than he is for the upcoming fall meet that begins Friday.
“Things are setting up nicely for it,” he said. “I think we’re in a really good position.
The gray colt Soup and Sandwich will make his first start since finishing last of 19 in the May 1 Kentucky Derby when he goes postward Saturday in the $150,000 Perryville Stakes at Keeneland.
Soup and Sandwich ran second to Known Agenda in the Florida Derby on March 27 before fading badly to finish far back in the Kentucky Derby. After getting several months at the Ocala, Fla., farm of trainer Mark Casse, the colt has trained in recent weeks at Churchill Downs with Casse assistant David Carroll.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jockey Joe Talamo will forgo another winter at Oaklawn Park to stay closer to home by riding instead at Turfway Park, the northern Kentucky track where purses are projected to be at an all-time high.
Talamo has settled in Louisville after moving with his wife and two young sons multiple times since they left their longtime California home nearly two years ago. He rode 53 winners during his first full Oaklawn meet in 2020, just seven behind perennial leader Ricardo Santana Jr., and also rode most of last winter at the Arkansas track.
The Louisiana Racing Commission on Monday voted to allow Delta Downs in Vinton, La., to have daytime racing this Friday and Saturday due to racetrack lighting issues and will readdress the topic at a meeting next week.
Delta is currently working with the lighting company and electricians to find solutions to the issue of shadows on the track, Steve Kuypers, vice president and general manager of Boyd Gaming’s racing properties in Louisiana, told the commission. He hopes a solution will be in place as early as next week.
