Ben Colebrook trains a stable of fewer than 20 runners, but three are 2-year-olds who could make their presence felt in 2026.
Percy’s Bar will get a winter break after a troubled third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. After being disqualified from first to second in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland, a race in which she was best, Percy’s Bar got brushed on the first turn of the Juvenile Fillies, then mugged in upper stretch, still finishing with interest for third.
While a minor illness cost division leader Sovereignty a chance to face older rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, his fellow 3-year-olds hardly covered themselves in Classic glory. Journalism, the Preakness winner, finished fourth, while Baeza, the Pennsylvania Derby winner, was sixth. Nevada Beach, hero of the Goodwood Stakes, finished seventh.
That’s not to say the sophomore set won’t eventually catch up to their elders, and Magnitude will get his chance against older rivals Nov. 28 at Churchill in the Grade 2, $600,000 Clark Stakes.
Mr. A. P., California’s top 2-year-old, based on the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile result, is done for the season. Now the connections of runner-up Mr. A. P. can start dreaming about next spring.
Claimed for $150,000 by David Wilson and trainer Vladimir Cerin from his runner-up debut in July at Del Mar, Mr. A. P. has emerged as a division leader. He won a maiden route Oct. 13 at Santa Anita and 18 days later finished second to Ted Noffey in the BC Juvenile.
Mr. A. P. earned $392,000 in three starts since he was claimed. He also earned a winter vacation.
Lovesick Blues and Big City Lights, California-bred stakes winners who could have given Man O Rose a battle in The Chosen Vron Stakes last Saturday at Del Mar had they not run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, are being pointed to their next starts. Lovesick Blues and Big City Lights finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in the BC Sprint on Nov. 1.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Kopion has run her final race. The outstanding 4-year-old filly has been retired from racing following a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, trainer Richard Mandella said Saturday at Del Mar.
“She came out of the race fine, but they’re going to breed her,” Mandella said, referring to the filly’s owner Spendthrift Farm. Kopion was scheduled to return to Santa Anita on Sunday, and fly to Spendthrift, in Kentucky, on Tuesday. A stallion for Kopion has not been announced.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Attfield passed his distance test Friday at Aqueduct, taking advantage of a ground-saving trip under Ricardo Santana Jr. to win the $150,000 Central Park Stakes by a half-length over favored Noble Dynasty. It was a neck back to pacesetting Honey Dutch in third.
There was a dead heat for fourth between Jutland and Beach Ballad.
After a win and a third in a pair of turf sprints, Attfield successfully stretched to 1 1/16 miles in the Central Park, something trainer Tom Morley wasn’t overly confident his horse would be able to do.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bishops Bay, winner of the Grade 3 Forty Niner Stakes on Nov. 2, will be strongly considered for the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile here on Dec. 6, trainer Brad Cox said.
Bishops Bay, who won the Forty Niner by three-quarters of a length over Nelson Avenue, is now 2 for 2 going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct having also captured the Grade 3 Westchester here in the spring. Overall, Bishops Bay is 8 for 12 with victories in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth and the American Pharoah Stakes at Oaklawn.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Gezora, the 9-1 winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, will be transferred to Chad Brown and have a 4-year-old campaign stateside.
Gezora is getting a 30-day break at Dell Ridge Farm in Lexington, Ky., before she joins Brown’s stable at Payson Park in Florida. Gezora is owned by Peter Brant, one of Brown’s main clients.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Book’em Danno, the multiple Grade 1 stakes-winning New Jersey-bred, will soon be joining trainer Derek Ryan’s stable at Tampa Bay Downs to begin preparing for his 5-year-old campaign.
Ryan, speaking Friday morning at Belmont Park, where he has a few horses stabled, said Book’em Danno is currently on a farm in Ocala “chilling” and getting some exercise on a treadmill. Ryan said while he doesn’t anticipate having Book’em Danno ready in time for a trip to Saudi Arabia in February, he didn’t rule out a trip to Dubai for the Golden Shaheen on March 28.
The mini turf festival at Churchill Downs this week continues Sunday with the featured seventh race, a third-level allowance with a $100,000 claiming option carded for one mile on grass.
This comes one day after the River City Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile grass race for older horses, and two days after Churchill filled a fourth-level allowance for older turf milers.
