ELMONT, N.Y. – Known Agenda came out of his ninth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby so well that trainer Todd Pletcher briefly flirted with the idea of wheeling him back in two weeks in the Preakness Stakes.
“In light of the way the track was playing it probably wouldn’t have been the right set up for him,” Pletcher said. “But physically he’s done very well since the Derby.”
SunRay Park in Farmington, N.M. has three 2-year-old stakes Sunday, with the $55,000 C.O. Ken Kendrick Memorial drawing a promising pair from trainer Todd Fincher.
The 4 1/2-furlong race drew a field of six first-time starters. The race is restricted to 2-year-olds bred in New Mexico.
Fincher trainees Bye Bye Matty P and the filly Roll On Camron are by stallions who are getting 20 percent juvenile debut winners. Bye Bye Matty P’s dam was a winner at 2 and has produced a multiple stakes winner in Plea Agreement.
By My Standards, who in his last start went over $2 million in earnings, is being pointed for the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star Park on May 31. The race anchors Lone Star Million Day.
“We’ve circled that race for a while and plan on coming,” said Bret Calhoun, who trains By My Standards for Allied Racing Stable and Spendthrift Farm.
By My Standards won the $400,000 Oaklawn Park Mile in his seasonal debut April 10. He is based in Kentucky.
The Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium announced Friday the rescheduled opening day for Fort Erie will be Tuesday, June 15, with first post at 4 p.m. This year’s racing season was originally scheduled to begin on June 1, but due to an extended provincial pandemic lockdown, the track’s opening day was postponed.
New medication rules in California that prohibit treating graded stakes runners with Lasix have prevented Grade 2 winner Harvest Moon from returning to her outstanding 2020 form. She has been turned out after her second bleeding episode this year.
“She bled in her last race, we took her to the farm,” Harvest Moon’s trainer Simon Callaghan said this week. “It’s twice she ran below par this year, and that [bleeding] seems to be the reason. That’s the frustrating thing with these fillies that always run with Lasix.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Easily the biggest day of racing at Churchill since Kentucky Derby weekend will take place next Saturday (May 29) when six $150,000 stakes are run, some of them as preps for the closing-day Stephen Foster card on June 26. Entries for all preview races will be drawn Wednesday.
At least three also-rans from the Derby could resurface in a couple of different races for 3-year-olds, with Helium (eighth) and Hidden Stash (14th) expected for the Grade 3 Matt Winn at 1 1/16 miles on the main track and Like the King (12th) going in the Audubon at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ron Moquett has bookends now, one of them much newer than the other.
“Never thought I’d have a turf sprinter this good,” Moquett said.
Firecrow, trained by Moquett for Robert LaPenta and Harlow Stables, established himself as a top-rank turf sprinter when earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure in a record-setting triumph last weekend in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint on the Preakness undercard at Pimlico. The 5-year-old gelding aligns perfectly on the Moquett shed row with Whitmore, the reigning sprint champion who does his best work on dirt.
The government of Ontario announced a three-step reopening of the province’s economy on Thursday. Live horse racing is included in Step 1 of that plan, which begins Monday, June 14.
The Standardbred season at Woodbine Mohawk Park will resume June 14, and then continue its regular schedule of five race days per week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday). Woodbine’s Thoroughbred meet begins Friday, June 18 and will continue Saturday, June 19 and Sunday, June 20 for the opening weekend. It will then go to four race days per week on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule.
Jason Beem, the journeyman racecaller, has been hired as the new track announcer at Tampa Bay Downs, the track announced Thursday.
Beem, who has a large social-media presence, will take over the race-calling duties on June 30, the track said. He will fill the full-time role most recently held by Richard Grunder, who retired from race-calling on May 2 after 37 years as Tampa Bay’s announcer.
Flavien Prat is a man in demand. He won the Preakness aboard Rombauer, but he also rides Hot Rod Charlie, who crossed the wire third in the Kentucky Derby, and there is the strong likelihood he will be on Hot Rod Charlie if, as currently planned, both go in the Belmont Stakes on June 5.
“We have Prat. Grateful to have him,” said Doug O’Neill, who trains Hot Rod Charlie.
