LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Running four straight years in any particular stakes race is a rarity. Four straight years in the same Breeders’ Cup race is even more so.
Next Saturday at Keeneland, Whitmore will compete in the BC Sprint for the fourth straight year, a streak that swells trainer Ron Moquett with pride.
“He’s been such a consistent horse, always playing at a high level, and fortunately he’s been sound,” said Moquett. “Most importantly, he’s just a pretty cool animal.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Zulu Alpha was not pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Turf after being found last weekend with minor swelling in his left foreleg.
Zulu Alpha, a 7-year-old trained by Mike Maker, has won seven graded turf stakes since Michael Hui claimed him for $80,000 in September 2018. Hui said the initial prognosis is that the injury most likely won’t preclude Zulu Alpha from racing next year at 8.
Giant Expectations, a graded stakes winner both sprinting and routing during his five seasons on the track, has been retired and will be sold as a stud prospect, his owners announced in a press release Tuesday.
Giant Expectations, 7, had his best year as a 4-year-old in 2017, when he captured both the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien going seven furlongs at Del Mar and the Grade 2 San Antonio at Santa Anita going 1 1/16 miles, defeating Grade 1 winners Accelerate, Collected, and Hoppertunity in the latter.
ARCADIA, Calif. -- Bombard and Collusion Illusion, both scheduled to be pre-entered in Breeders' Cup races on Monday, worked at Santa Anita on Monday, on a day that also saw the highly regarded 3-year-old Charlatan return to the work tab.
Bombard, prepping for the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint Nov. 7 at Keeneland for trainer Richard Mandella, rolled five furlongs in 59.20 seconds, the fastest drill of 53 at the distance. He most recently was second in the Grade 3 Runhappy Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 12.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Daniel Velazquez won the first two stakes of his training career last Saturday at Belmont Park when Laobanonaprayer took the $150,000 Maid of the Mist Stakes followed 30 minutes later by Brooklyn Strong’s victory in the $150,000 Sleepy Hollow Stakes on New York Showcase Day.
Velazquez, based in the Mid-Atlantic region, will look for another stakes victory this Saturday at Belmont when he is expected to ship up Arch Cat for the Grade 3, $100,000 Bold Ruler Handicap at seven furlongs on dirt.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Natalia Lynch has always had an affinity for Wendell Fong. She helped prepare the horse for his career debut, which he won at Laurel in December 2018, and for his first stakes victory, the Gold Fever at Belmont in June 2019.
An assistant trainer and exercise rider for Jeremiah Englehart then, Lynch, 26, is now training on her own. Wendell Fong is now in her care and, if Mother Nature helps out, he could give Lynch her first victory in Thursday’s third-level allowance feature at Belmont.
Mocito Rojo, the multiple Grade 3 winner based in Louisiana, is being pointed to the $100,000 Delta Mile on Nov. 28 at Delta Downs, according to his trainer, Shane Wilson.
Mocito Rojo will be looking for his second win in the race, which he captured in 2018. He went on to win last year’s Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star Park and Grade 3 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs.
Welder, who has won back-to-back Oklahoma-bred stakes this meet at Remington Park, has one more such opportunity on the calendar for 2020 and that race is his goal, according to trainer Theresa Luneack.
“We hope to run in the Silver Goblin the first part of November,” she said.
The $70,000 Silver Goblin is set for Nov. 13 at Remington. The 6 1/2-furlong race is for 3-year-olds and up bred in Oklahoma.
MIAMI – An optional-claiming race for 2-year-olds highlights Wednesday’s card at Gulfstream Park West, which also includes a $38,000 allowance test for statebred fillies and mares on turf.
Something will have to give when The Distractor, Worlds On High, and Drain the Clock – each victorious in his only start – match strides in the $43,000 sixth race, a six-furlong sprint that includes a $60,000 claiming option.
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