Hot Rod Charlie, third by a length behind Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby on May 1, jogged at Santa Anita on Friday, beginning preparation for an expected start in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 5.
“Well jog for another day or two, and when he gives us the signal he wants to do more, we’ll start galloping,” trainer Doug O’Neill said.
O’Neill said the Belmont Stakes is “the plan as long as he tells us he’ll be ready for it.”
Hit the Road, the winner of two graded stakes on turf at Santa Anita earlier this year, will miss the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on May 31 because of a muscle strain, trainer Dan Blacker said.
A 4-year-old colt, Hit the Road will be pointed for the Del Mar summer meeting, and Grade 2 turf races such as the $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on July 24, and $300,000 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 21.
Hit the Road was fifth in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland on April 9 as the 5-2 favorite. The injury was diagnosed after that race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Risk Taking, the 7-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park, will scratch from that race and instead run in the $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico next Saturday, trainer Chad Brown said Friday.
Risk Taking will be ridden by Jose Ortiz and gives Brown a second runner in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown as he will also run Crowded Trade. Javier Castellano rides Crowded Trade.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Charlatan, second in the $20 million Saudi Cup in his most recent start Feb. 20, is scheduled to breeze Sunday at Churchill while trainer Bob Baffert is in town to monitor the training of his Preakness hopefuls, Medina Spirit and Concert Tour.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The good times keep on coming for Wesley Ward. A victory by Gold for Kitten in the sixth race Thursday at Churchill Downs gave Ward the 2,000th win of his illustrious training career not long after he earned another Keeneland training title and saddled his first Kentucky Derby starter.
“I was actually moving a bunch of mares and foals from one place to another at my farm in Lexington when it happened,” Ward, 53, said by phone early Friday. “It’s a great accomplishment, very humbling.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun won’t run in the Preakness, and neither will his stablemate Caddo River, trainer Brad Cox announced Thursday afternoon on a teleconference call hosted by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
The defection of the Cox horses leaves no more than 10 known prospects for the Preakness on May 15 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, with the Bob Baffert-trained pair of Medina Spirit and Concert Tour the likely favorites. Entries will be drawn Monday.
The attorney for trainer Jeff Metz and the California Horse Racing Board have reached “common ground” on a settlement agreement in the adjudication of the finding of a bisphosphonate in the post-race sample of a horse trained by Metz following a race last September, the attorney said on Wednesday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Civil Union, the Grade 1 Flower Bowl winner, and Harvey’s Lil Goil, the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II winner, headline the field of six entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Beaugay Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.
Both will be making their first start of the year. Harvey’s Lil Goil was third and Civil Union fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf last Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After taking a shot going seven furlongs in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap and finishing fourth, Chateau will be back at his preferred six-furlong distance in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Runhappy Stakes. Two starts back, Chateau won the Grade 3 Tom Fool at Aqueduct going six furlongs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Weyburn, the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes winner, will be forced to miss Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes after developing a temperature, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Wednesday.
Jerkens said that Weyburn has been treated for the temperature but missed four days of training. Jerkens said it’s “too early to say” if that takes Weyburn out of consideration for the Belmont Stakes on June 5.
