HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Barring a setback, it will be on to the Grade 1 Florida Derby here March 27 for Greatest Honour, the courageous winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
Greatest Honour's competition will likely include two formidable new shooters: the graded stakes-placed Known Agenda and exciting maiden winner Collaborate.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Champion Essential Quality emerged from his win in the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest at Oaklawn Park in good order, trainer Brad Cox said Sunday, while plans for the horse’s final Kentucky Derby prep race are still being determined.
Essential Quality made his 3-year-old debut in the Southwest. He stalked the pace, moved to the fore into the stretch and barreled home to remain undefeated in four career starts. The start was his first since the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 6, and for the effort he earned a preliminary, career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96.
ARCADIA, Calif. – When it comes to natural talent, there’s no better 3-year-old in California this year than Life Is Good. The key with him going forward, though, is trying to harness his inclination to go too fast too soon, and that’s what his morning lessons have been designed to teach in recent weeks.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Jackie’s Warrior will cut back to one turn for his next start following a third-place finish in Saturday's Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday.
Asmussen said Jackie’s Warrior will target the Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs.
Jackie’s Warrior on Saturday set the pace in the Southwest Stakes, which was his second start at two turns following a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Nominations were released Friday afternoon by Churchill Downs officials for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks, and most of the leading 3-year-old fillies in the country are on a roster of 106, led by reigning divisional champion Vequist.
Other leading names include Clairiere, Travel Column, Simply Ravishing, and Malathaat. Late nominations for $1,500 can be made by April 10, and supplemental entries of $25,000 also can be made at entry time.
Todd Pletcher and Ken McPeek lead trainers with the most nominations with nine and eight, respectively.
A new childcare facility that serves the families of backstretch workers will open this summer at Saratoga, the Belmont Child Care Association announced Friday.
Faith’s House, a 4,300-square-foot childcare center, will be located on the Oklahoma side of the Saratoga backstretch. It is named in honor of the mother of Michael Dubb, who, along with his wife, Lee, funded the facility. Michael Dubb is the founder and board chairman of the BCCA and helped finance and build Anna House, a childcare facility that opened in 2003 on the Belmont Park backstretch.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Beginning with the Belmont Park spring/summer meet that begins April 22, the New York Racing Association will no longer permit horses 10 years of age and older to race at its tracks.
The house rule was not officially announced, but appears in the Belmont condition book and on the stall applications for that meet.
According to Keith Doleshel, the racing secretary at Aqueduct and assistant racing secretary at Belmont and Saratoga, it was a rule borne out of equine safety and welfare.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The field for next Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes remained a work in progress a week out, with only four horses considered definite and a few other fringe players under consideration.
The Gotham lost one expected starter on Friday when trainer Wesley Ward said One Fast Cat, a debut winner at Turfway Park on Feb. 4, would not make the race. Though One Fast Cat worked five furlongs in 1:02.60 at Keeneland on Friday, Ward said the horse missed too much training and will now be pointed to the Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct on April 3.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Funny Guy came out of his last-place finish in the Grade 3 General George Stakes at Laurel Park on Feb. 20 with an injury and has been retired, trainer John Terranova said Friday.
Terranova said Funny Guy suffered “a small fracture” in his left knee that would heal given time, but “to get back to the level he’s been running at probably wouldn’t happen,” Terranova added.
The Grade 2 Del Mar Derby in 2018 was the start of a four-race winning streak for Ride a Comet. It would have been impossible to predict the second win of the streak would come more than two years later.
Ride a Comet is scheduled to try and stretch his win streak to five in the Grade 1, $400,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita on March 6.
