ARCADIA, Calif. Georgie Boy is out of the Santa Anita Derby and off the Kentucky Derby trail with a pulled muscle in his back.
Trainer Kathy Walsh announced Monday afternoon that Georgie Boy would be sidelined indefinitely. Walsh and owner George Schwary were scheduled to meet Tuesday at Hollywood Park to discuss Georgie Boys recovery process.
Walsh told the Santa Anita publicity department that Georgie Boy came out of a six-furlong workout Saturday at Hollywood Park with a pulled muscle.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A pulled muscle in his left hind end does not end Georgie Boy's career, but the injury will prevent California's leading 3-year-old from running Saturday in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and it has knocked him off the Kentucky Derby trail.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The undefeated Zenyatta put away a pair of Grade 1 winners in her third start last out. Saturday, she has her sights set on a champion.
Zenyatta figures to start as second choice to Ginger Punch, the champion older filly or mare of 2007, when she makes her Grade 1 debut in the $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park.
STICKNEY, Ill. - It is hard to be the Kentucky Derby prospect of the moment when you don't race during an entire month.
Denis of Cork had pundits yapping when he sharply won the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, but come on, that was, like, a lifetime ago. Since the Southwest's running Feb. 18, we have seen Pyro cement his top-end status in the Louisiana Derby, War Pass flop at Tampa Bay Downs, and most recently, Florida Derby winner Big Brown come screaming onto the scene.
Denis of Who?
ARCADIA, Calif. - B.J. Wright first met Michael Pender when Pender was a 12-year-old kid running around a Glendale, Calif., ball field, playing flag football with Wright's son.
Wright got hooked into coaching the youngsters and made a quick assessment of Pender.
"I decided to make Pender my quarterback," he said. "He looked like he was a kid with confidence."
Thirty years later, Wright's confidence in Pender continues, but in a different sport.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Bennie Stutts Jr.'s phone has been ringing off the hook since Smooth Air finished an easy second behind runaway winner Big Brown in Saturday's $1 million Florida Derby. And rightly so since the 70-year-old Stutts will be one of the more engaging stories when he arrives in Louisville later this month with his first Kentucky Derby starter.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - When War Pass finished last as the 1-20 favorite in the Tampa Bay Derby, it stood to reason that the number of starters for Saturday's Wood Memorial at Aqueduct would swell considerably.
After all, the Wood is a Grade 1 race worth $750,000 run at 1 1/8 miles over a regular dirt surface four weeks before the Kentucky Derby. The Wood has produced a bevy of Kentucky Derby winners, including Fusaichi Pegasus, Monarchos, and Funny Cide this decade alone.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. Trainer H. James Bond picked a good time to win his first race of the meet, sending out Hostess to a 1 1/4-length victory over 9-5 favorite Mauralakana in Sunday's $150,000 Orchid Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
Hostess, a 5-year-old daughter of Chester House, rallied from last after the opening mile of the 1 1/2-mile Orchid. With John Velazquez sitting patiently until nearing the stretch, Hostess slipped along the hedge and with a late burst of speed overtook Mauralakana in the final sixteenth of a mile to win going clear.