Saratoga Special winner Ewing, unbeaten in his nascent career, will scratch from tomorrow's Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland and point to his 3-year-old campaign.
Trainer Mark Casse said that Ewing trained on Friday morning, but Casse "wasn't completely happy with him afterwards."
"He wasn't 100 percent, and he's always 100 percent," Casse added.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas, whose stable has won nine stakes in California in the last year, has relocated his 20-horse team to Keeneland this month, but plans a return to California for the Del Mar autumn meeting, he said on Thursday.
“We hope to start trickling out there by Nov. 1,” he said.
The Del Mar autumn meeting runs from Oct. 30 to Nov. 30.
Thomas said he plans to have a California-based stable later this fall and through the winter at Santa Anita before moving some runners back to Keeneland in the spring.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kopion, the winner of three graded stakes for female sprinters from last December to early May, is on schedule for a start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1 after a quick five-furlong workout in 59.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Wednesday.
“She wasn’t meant to have a fast work, but she did,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “She’s just going good.”
Rapid workouts have become customary for Kopion in recent weeks. She went a half-mile in 46.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Sept. 24, the quickest of 22 works at the distance that day.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Big money changed hands on the expansive Keeneland grounds during the track’s September yearling sale. More big money, for horsemen and patrons, will be on offer as the bucolic track opens its 17-day fall meet Friday, running through Oct. 25.
The return of turf racing to the Churchill Downs September meet resulted in strong gains in wagering over its 14 live racing days, according to an analysis conducted by Daily Racing Form.
Churchill held 11 turf races during this year’s September meet after carding zero last September, when the track scrapped turf racing after experiencing late-summer problems with the surface. Turf racing resumed during Churchill’s October-November meet last year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Jose Lezcano, who suffered a broken collarbone in a spill at Saratoga on Aug. 29, will be back in the saddle Friday at Aqueduct. He is named on four horses on Friday’s card and six on Saturday.
Lezcano was injured when Catchy, the horse he was riding in a maiden race at Saratoga, fell past the wire and suffered a catastrophic injury to her left foreleg. Lezcano underwent surgery to have a plate and screws put into his collarbone.
At the time of his injury, Lezcano was tied for 12th in the Saratoga standings with nine wins from 120 mounts.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Crazy Mason, runner-up to Patriot Spirit in last Saturday’s Grade 3 Vosburgh Stakes, will be pointed to the Grade 2 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Dec. 6, trainer Gregg Sacco said.
Crazy Mason, perhaps compromised by a modest pace in the Vosburgh, came rallying to finish 1 1/2 lengths behind Patriot Spirit and a half-length in front of race favorite Scotland. There was a timing malfunction, so the half-mile fraction wasn’t originally posted but the Equibase chart now lists the half-mile time at 45.21 seconds after using video technology to re-time the race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Danny Gargan has a contender in the Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette for 2-year-old fillies in Iron Orchard, a New York-bred who has won both of her starts impressively. She beat statebreds by 5 1/2 lengths going 5 1/2 furlongs on debut and then came back to win the six-furlong Seeking the Ante Stakes by 6 3/4 lengths a month later.
“She’s fast. She’s really fast. Obviously, a mile is going to be a question,” Gargan said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Danny Gargan sent out a couple of good-looking 2-year-old colts to debut victories at Saratoga this summer and, at one time, both were being considered for starts in graded stakes this fall.
But Golden Tornado, whose race has since produced three next-out winners, has been sidelined with bucked shins, so Talkin will carry the banner for Gargan and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Chaos seemed to be part of Reef Runner’s brief career in California, which consisted of the final Saturday of August at Del Mar and on Saturday at Santa Anita.
Reef Runner, typically based at Gulfstream Park with trainer David Fawkes, was disqualified from first and placed second in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 30. With the demotion, Reef Runner lost a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 1.
