OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Grade 1 stakes are never meant to be easy, and Saturday’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct is no exception. The good news for the 4-year-old gelding Ginobili, however, is at least he won’t have to face Life Is Good, to whom he ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
“Who knows? He could be the best horse in the country,” Richard Baltas, the trainer of Ginobili, said of Life Is Good. “We’ll find out in the Pegasus.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ny Traffic was expected to ship up from Florida on Monday for the Cigar Mile but was kept at home after trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. didn’t like the results of blood work he had pulled on the horse.
“He’s got some kind of sickness,” Joseph said Monday. “We were supposed to get on a van this morning but it didn’t come back good.”
Trainer Michelle Lovell last week expressed amazement that her stable, numbering roughly 20 horses, had managed to knock out eight stakes wins during 2021.
Days later, the stakes tally had grown to 10 after stable stars Just Might won at Fair Grounds and Change of Control at Aqueduct.
Just Might, notching his sixth stakes victory this calendar year, coasted to a front-running 2 1/2-length win in the $150,000 Thanksgiving Classic, a six-furlong dirt sprint, with Colby Hernandez easing up on his mount through the final half-furlong.
Mandaloun, one of the better 3-year-olds of 2021, had his first published workout following a break from racing when he went an easy three furlongs Sunday at Churchill Downs.
Both Mandaloun and Knicks Go, sure to be named Horse of the Year for 2021, will roll into Fair Grounds sometime next week, when trainer Brad Cox sends a final shipment of horses south from Churchill to New Orleans.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Desert Dawn, third in the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita in October and sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 5 at Del Mar, will be ridden by Mike Smith in Saturday’s Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos.
Smith worked Desert Dawn five furlongs in 1:00.60 on Saturday at Del Mar. The decision to give Smith the mount was made after the BC Juvenile Fillies, in which Desert Dawn finished 18 3/4 lengths behind the brilliant winner, Echo Zulu. Ricky Gonzalez rode Desert Dawn in her first four starts.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Danny Vella was forced to scratch Coronation Futurity winner The Minkster from Sunday’s Grade 3 Grey at Woodbine, hindering the unbeaten Ontario-bred’s chances for Canadian champion male 2-year-old honors.
“He had a stall accident,” Vella said. “Somebody claimed a horse that got rowdy in the barn and upset him there the other day and he kicked the wall. He’ll be fine. It’s a shame, because if he [won the Grey], he’s champion 2-year-old.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – John Velazquez, the Hall of Fame rider, will be switching coasts this winter, as he will be based for the first time at Santa Anita after spending most of his previous winters in South Florida.
Velazquez on Sunday at Del Mar said the only thing holding him back was finding suitable housing, but by Monday morning that had been resolved, according to his agent, Ron Anderson.
Steve Asmussen and Tyler Gaffalione were in familiar positions atop the trainer and jockey standings when Churchill Downs wrapped up its 21-day, dirt-only meet Sunday.
Asmussen, with 20 winners at the meet, which began Oct. 31, extended his own Churchill record for most meet titles to 25. Gaffalione rode 34 winners, marking the sixth straight meet he has been the leading jockey at Churchill, dating to the 2020 spring meet. M and M Racing, with four wins, was the leading owner.
It’s been 10 years since Turfway Park ran its traditional stakes schedule. It’ll be one more before fans can be on hand to watch all the action at the Florence, Ky., track.
Turfway begins four months of winter action over Tapeta with an eight-race card Thursday evening. First post is 6:15 p.m. Eastern.
