Churchill Downs

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Of all the four-letter words regularly uttered around the racetrack during the course of the year, one not heard very often in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby was on everybody’s lips when the racetrack opened for training Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs. Snow!

Dream Shake, third in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3, and Get Her Number, fourth in the Arkansas Derby on April 10 at Oaklawn Park, remain in consideration for the Kentucky Derby on May 1 at Churchill Downs, their California-based trainers said Wednesday.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Mr. Wireless and Stilleto Boy could be considered brothers from another mother. The 3-year-old geldings were raised together, received their early training together, and finished a nose apart for separate trainers when running 1-2 in a maiden special weight March 27 at Oaklawn Park. 

“It just doesn’t happen,” said John Kerber, who from two broodmares bred and owns both horses with his wife, Iveta.

“It was unbelievable,” said Iveta Kerber.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – His two victories in Triple Crown events have come in unconventional ways, so why can’t Ken McPeek make it a full set?

After winning the 2002 Belmont Stakes with Sarava, a 70-1 shot, McPeek won the 2020 Preakness with the filly Swiss Skydiver. As the 2021 Kentucky Derby draws near, McPeek is hoping to complete a personal Triple Crown with King Fury, who looks like he’ll have to make the May 1 race off the also-eligibles list. The Derby is limited to 20 starters, with an AE list of as many of four horses being maintained.

SunRay Park will be the first track in New Mexico to conduct live racing this year when it opens for an 18-date meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses on Friday. The season runs through May 30.

There has been no racing in New Mexico since Zia Park closed in December. Sunland Park follows that season, but its meet was called off due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic prompted SunRay to cancel its 2020 meet.

Sam Houston opens a 23-date meet for Quarter Horses on Friday night and will have a series of guest announcers throughout the season, including a rare female voice in Jessica Paquette.

Paquette became the first woman to call a race on the New England circuit in 2014, when the track’s regular announcer was unable to get to the track before the races started.

“There was a tornado through the area and our announcer got stuck in the traffic,” said Paquette, a 36-year-old native of Massachusetts. “I broke into the announcer booth and called the first race.”

All-sources handle at the 2021 Aqueduct spring meet that concluded Sunday was $85,419,050, a 2.2 percent increase over the $83,579,364 handled at the 2019 spring meet, according to the New York Racing Association.

The 2020 spring meet was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ELMONT, N.Y. – With Hard Love’s victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Woodhaven Stakes at 1 1/16 miles under his belt, trainer Jonathan Thomas is looking forward to stretching the 3-year-old out in distance in races like the Pennine Ridge at 1 1/8 miles on May 29 and the $1 million Belmont Derby going 1 1/4 miles on July 10.

“He’s supposed to improve fitness-wise,” Thomas said. “I think he’s going to relish another furlong or two more.”

In 2018, Thomas won both the Pennine Ridge and Belmont Derby with Catholic Boy. That colt also won the Grade 1 Travers on dirt.

ELMONT, N.Y. – When Bubbles On Ice took Sunday’s $100,000 Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct, it was the first stakes win of the year for trainer Christophe Clement.

He hopes he won’t have to wait quite as long for his second. Clement will have runners in both of the opening weekend turf stakes at the Belmont Park spring/summer meet with Therapist in Saturday’s $100,000 Elusive Quality at seven furlongs and She’s My Type in Sunday’s $100,000 License Fee going six furlongs.

ELMONT, N.Y. – A year ago at this time, New York was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic with virtually all businesses at a standstill. New York racing was a month into a shutdown that had no definitive end date. Coming off the cancellation of the Aqueduct spring meet, no one knew when racing would resume and some horsemen wondered whether they might have to relocate.