Zulu Alpha has been scratched from his intended start Saturday in the $1 million Calumet Turf Cup and has been retired from racing by owner Michael Hui, Kentucky Downs officials reported Friday.
An earner of more than $2.2 million from 37 starts, Zulu Alpha will retire to Old Friends in Georgetown, Ky.
Churchill Downs will not award Kentucky Derby qualifying points to any horse that is trained by an individual that is banned by the track for the 2022 running of the race, the track announced on Friday.
The 2021 Grade 2 winners Royal Ship and Soothsay will not race again this season, trainer Richard Mandella said recently.
Royal Ship won the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Santa Anita in April, but was winless in three subsequent starts, including a second by a head to Country Grammer in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita in May and a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 21.
A 5-year-old gelding, Royal Ship was a Group 1 winner in Brazil in 2020.
“We’ll give him a good break,” Mandella said.
Los Alamitos has added a $75,000 stakes for fillies and mares at a mile to the Sept. 19 program, the track announced on Thursday.
The Dark Mirage Stakes has a $50 nomination fee due on Wednesday, with $250 supplemental nominations due on Thursday when entries are taken.
“If we get five or six horses, we’ll use it,” racing secretary Bob Moreno said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Medina Spirit, preparing for a scheduled start in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 25, worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 on Friday morning at Del Mar, looking as though he has emerged well from his victory last month here in the Shared Belief.
Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., had a track record average daily handle of $2.23 million during its recently completed 21-day meet, the track said.
Handle comparisons to previous meets are complicated because Colonial ran only four cards last year before canceling the remainder of its meet due to coronavirus concerns. In 2019, Colonial Downs ran 15 days on a different weekly schedule and averaged $1.17 million in daily handle, nearly half the 2021 average.
Even with the Saturday and Sunday cards at Kentucky Downs still remaining, Joel Rosario already has broken the record for most wins by a jockey at a meet.
Rosario rode 13 winners through the first four days of the meet, including two Thursday. The former record of 12 was held by Rafael Bejarano (2004) and Florent Geroux (2015, 2016).
“We’ve been blessed the days we’ve been here, great opportunities,” said Rosario.
Rosario won five race on each of the first two days of the meet.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chief steward Barbara Borden said proper protocol was followed in the last race Wednesday at turf-only Kentucky Downs in south-central Kentucky when bettors who backed a heavily favored Godolphin entry came away frustrated when one of the horses was scratched.
Soft Touch was scratched at the gate after flipping over, but unlike in other states such as New York where the remaining half of the entry runs for purse money only, there is no such provision in Kentucky, said Borden.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Stalls at Churchill are being replenished ahead of a 12-day dirt-only meet that begins Thursday with an eight-race twilight card. Horses and stable employees began filtering back in from various summer venues on Wednesday, with training on the dirt resuming the following morning.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Whit Beckman, a former longtime assistant to Chad Brown, has opened a public stable at Churchill Downs, where he grew up professionally, aspiring to make an impact in racing.
Beckman, 39, began his racing career in 2003, a few years after graduating high school in Louisville, by working as a stablehand for trainer Walt Bindner at Churchill. He eventually worked his way up the ranks in New York and elsewhere, spending 6 1/2 years working for Todd Pletcher prior to becoming a top lieutenant for Brown, the four-time champion trainer, in April 2016.
