Smooth Like Strait, one of the top turf milers in California, is scheduled to have a workout at Santa Anita this weekend that will determine whether the six-time stakes winner starts before the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
Smooth Like Strait won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita in May to earn a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile. Smooth Like Strait finished second by a head to BC Mile hopeful Mo Forza in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 21 in his latest start.
Jockey Declan Cannon was scheduled to undergo surgery Wednesday morning at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis after suffering three fractured vertebrae Monday in a spill at Indiana Grand.
Cannon’s agent, Tim Hanisch, said doctors expect the jockey to make a full recovery and that he could be back riding in six months or so.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An 11-race card showcasing 2020 Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil in the Locust Grove is set for Saturday night at Churchill, where twin Breeders’ Cup qualifiers, the Iroquois and Pocahontas, also are among five stakes on an outstanding card.
First post is 6 p.m. Eastern, with the last race going at 11:10.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Swiss Skydiver, the Preakness winner and 3-year-old filly champion in 2020, in all likelihood is finished racing and is scheduled to be sold Nov. 9 at the Night of Stars Sale at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington.
Ken McPeek, who trained Swiss Skydiver throughout a 16-race career highlighted by victories in three Grade 1 events – the 2020 Alabama and Preakness and 2021 Beholder Mile – said Wednesday the 4-year-old daughter of Daredevil is currently in good stead at his Magdalena Farm in Lexington.
Brickyard Ride, a multiple stakes winner and quickest sprinter in California, has been turned out after a tough-luck summer at Del Mar. Trainer Craig Lewis and owner-breeder Alfred Pais opted to end his campaign after the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien on Aug. 28 at Del Mar.
Brickyard Ride broke through the gate, ran off before the start, then finished ninth in the Pat O’Brien. In his previous start in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby, he broke slowly, rushed to the lead, and finished fifth.
John Imbriale, the track announcer for the New York Racing Association, tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the opening week of the Belmont Park fall meet, according to a NYRA spokesman.
Frank Mirahmadi was scheduled to call Thursday’s opening-day program. Chris Griffin, the track announcer at Parx Racing, is scheduled to call the Friday-through-Sunday programs.
According to Pat McKenna, the NYRA director of communications, Imbriale tested positive for COVID following the conclusion of the Saratoga meet, which ended Sept. 6.
Jockey Tomas Mejia, who returned to riding in early September after being out for one month with an injury, has been ordered to appear before the stewards at Monmouth Park in New Jersey on Wednesday morning under suspicion of using an electrical device in a race on Sept. 3, according to New Jersey racing officials.
Four stakes races decided on the turf during the final Gulfstream Park West meet, conducted in the fall of 2020, will all be run over the newly installed Tapeta course during the upcoming Gulfstream Park fall session, which begins on Sep. 30 and continues through Nov. 21.
The first race over the Tapeta track, which has been installed over the outer section of the turf course, is scheduled to be run on Thursday, Sept. 23.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Change is happening all around Belmont Park, with a hockey arena nearing completion for a November opening in the backyard and a parking garage for said arena being built in warp-like speed across the street in what racing fans know as the South parking lot. Change is expected to come in due time to Belmont itself, though what that looks like remains to be determined.
Will there be a new building or will the current one be renovated? “That’s still being debated,” New York Racing Association president and CEO Dave O’Rourke said recently.
