ELMONT, N.Y. – Both Mr. Buff and jockey Junior Alvarado escaped injury after the 11-time stakes winner unseated Alvarado following a Sunday morning workout at Belmont Park. Mr. Buff remains on schedule for a start in the $200,000 Commentator Stakes for New York-breds on Monday.
Alvarado rode two winners from five mounts on Sunday’s card.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In addition to running potential favorite Essential Quality in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 5, trainer Brad Cox will have a select group of runners for some of the other 16 stakes to be run from June 3 through June 5 at Belmont Park.
Chief among them is Knicks Go, who has been rerouted from Monday’s Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star to the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 5.
“No Charlatan,” Cox texted when asked why the change of plans.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Any thought that Noble Drama might be losing or step or two as a 6-year-old was quickly erased after the Florida-bred dug down deep to win Saturday’s sixth race, a $60,000 open overnight handicap decided at a mile on the main track.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – These are very busy but happy times for veteran trainer Greg Foley, who sent out Sconsin to a rousing triumph Saturday evening in the Grade 3 Winning Colors and was considering Monday whether to run O Besos in the Grade 3, $150,000 Matt Winn this coming Saturday.
“Maybe,” said Foley. “Either the Matt Winn or one of these other 3-year-old races coming up.”
O Besos, most recently fifth in the Kentucky Derby, breezed a solo half-mile in 49 seconds before daybreak Monday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Asmussen was still riding a wave of emotion Monday morning on the Churchill Downs backside, and it had nothing to do with horse racing.
Asmussen had returned to Louisville the previous evening from Austin, Texas, where on Sunday the oldest of his three sons, Keith, had taken part in graduation ceremonies from the University of Texas. Keith Asmussen now has a bachelor’s degree in finance.
“I attended my first-ever college graduation,” said his beaming father. “It was so great, so nice, so exciting.”
Nimbostratus had an active morning with trainer Leonard Powell on Sunday, a day after she was claimed for a Santa Anita record $150,000.
Shortly before 9 a.m., Powell ponied Nimbostratus on the training track and gave her a brief walk through the stable area before returning to the barn.
“I like to do a little something with them the day after a race and let them stretch out,” Powell said.
On Sunday, a day after Going Global won her fourth consecutive stakes of 2021 in the Grade 3 Honeymoon for 3-year-old fillies, a few of trainer Phil D’Amato’s colleagues in the Santa Anita stables independently volunteered that Going Global would be well placed in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks at Belmont Park on July 10.
Presented with their opinions, D’Amato was not accepting of their offer.
“We have a game plan that we mapped out,” D’Amato said with a laugh.
East Coast-based trainer Chad Brown has had widespread success in recent years shipping horses to Southern California for major stakes on Memorial Day and Thanksgiving weekends.
Brown won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita last May, and won four stakes at Del Mar last November.
This year, Brown will be absent from the major stakes at Santa Anita on Memorial Day weekend because of ongoing difficulties in transporting horses via plane. The Tex Sutton airline charter company is not currently operating because of regulatory issues.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Medina Spirit was shipped to trainer Bob Baffert’s base at Santa Anita late last week, days after a third-place finish in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 15, and far from the international scrutiny that has followed the colt’s medication-overage test after a win in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 1.
There are no immediate race plans for Medina Spirit, Baffert said on Sunday.
“He’s just walking right now,” Baffert said during a brief interview during morning training. “He lost a little bit of weight. We’re getting him back going.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - Rebel’s Romance, the UAE Derby winner, had his second timed workout in four days, going five furlongs in 1:01.05 over the Belmont Park main track just after 5:30 a.m.
Belmont Park clockers had his final quarter in 24 seconds as Rebel’s Romance followed, but did not catch, his stablemate Desert Peace, who began the move two lengths in front and remained close to that margin in front at the finish, according to the clockers. Rebel’s Romance went out six furlongs in 1:14 and seven furlongs in 1:27.40.
