DEL MAR, Calif. – In the last five years, Thanksgiving weekend at Del Mar has been a late-season showcase for top trainer Chad Brown’s deep stable of turf runners.
Beginning in 2016, Brown has won at least one graded turf stakes on the holiday weekend at Del Mar. This year, Brown sent another strong group from his New York base and had his best success in recent seasons, winning four stakes from Thursday through Sunday.
The second half of the year is typically a time of European acquisitions for Jed Cohen’s Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal, operated by Cohen’s son Tim. The purchases tend to come in groups, in late summer and in the fall.
Sunday at Del Mar, Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal have both a summer purchase and a new buy in the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf.
:: Want to get your Past Performances for free? Click to learn more.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Richard Mandella thought Jolie Olimpica was training as though she was sitting on a big race in the Grade 1 Matriarch on Sunday at Del Mar, but a foot bruise this week caused her to not even be entered.
“She’s dead lame,” Mandella said. “She’s got an abscess coming. Another setback.”
:: Click to learn about our DRF's Free Past Performance program.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Game on.
Astute will take on Princess Noor in a battle of the two best 2-year-old fillies on the West Coast in the Grade 1, $300,000 Starlet at Los Alamitos next Saturday.
:: Click to learn about our DRF's Free Past Performance program.
Astute will be coming back just 21 days after her victory in the Desi Arnaz here at Del Mar, but she signaled her readiness for the 1 1/16-mile Starlet with a half-mile work in 46 seconds Friday morning at Del Mar.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kenny McPeek ran Envoutante against his likely Eclipse champion Swiss Skydiver one time. That was in the Grade 1 Alabama in mid-August, when Swiss Skydiver won easily and Envoutante was fourth by 11 lengths.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A sizable Single 6 pool that would have made for an inviting closing-day target for thousands of Churchill Downs bettors Sunday was instead emptied by a Thanksgiving windfall for one remarkably lucky person.
An unidentified man playing online in California hit for a whopping $328,146 on Thursday by using a mere $2 worth of random picks in the Single 6. The winning combination of 6-5-9-3-1-4 was among one of his singular selections at a 20-cent increment.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - After a last-ditch effort to try to salvage the final three weeks of the meet, Woodbine Entertainment announced Thursday that the remainder of the Woodbine meet has been canceled.
The Ontario government put Toronto into a grey lockdown phase this week to try to curtail a spike in coronavirus cases. Included among the restrictions was no horse racing, but training has been allowed to continue. Racing industry representatives were unable to convince government officials to allow Woodbine to finish out the meet.
MIAMI – Trainer Ron Spatz said he really didn’t give it much thought that Saturday’s third race will be the final feature race ever run at the old Calder Race Course when he entered I Get It in the $46,000 allowance test, carded at 1 1/16 miles on the grass. He was just happy for the opportunity to start his promising 2-year-old filly one more time before heading into the Gulfstream Park championship meet this winter.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Money Moves, who likely would have vied for favoritism, will miss Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Discovery Stakes due to an unspecified problem, trainer Todd Pletcher said Wednesday.
Pletcher said he has sent X-rays to Dr. Larry Bramlage to decipher the issue.
:: Click to learn about our DRF's Free Past Performance program.
With Money Moves out, there were only five 3-year-olds entered in the Discovery, among the last route stakes restricted to 3-year-olds in 2020.
