Undefeated Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer returned to the track Tuesday at Churchill Downs, and trainer Brad Cox confirmed that the Godolphin homebred is targeting the Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga. That could kick off a summer campaign through the division’s major events in New York.
“I thought she came out of the race incredibly well,” Cox told Churchill Downs publicity.
Winnipeg’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning Jets have taken the city by storm as they advance through the National Hockey League playoffs. Racing returns to the Manitoba capital on Tuesday when Assiniboia Downs commences a 50-day meet that goes to Oct. 8, filling a void for sports fans after hockey season ends.
Racing will be conducted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays until June. Mondays will be added to the schedule on June 2, June 23, July 14, Aug. 4, Aug. 25, and Sept. 15. Post time is 7:30 p.m. Central.
This much is certain - Cheever was an expensive purchase for $700,000 as a 2-year-old in 2024 and has worked well from the gate in recent weeks in advance of his first start in a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Saturday.
How the race will unfold and whether Cheever can beat what looks to be a talented field is unclear to trainer Mark Glatt.
“His works have been very good from the gate,” Glatt said on Thursday. “There is some chance that’s a little bit of a sandbagger in the morning and that he’ll show more in the afternoon.
Trainer Mark Glatt has Grade 1 goals later this month with the two-time stakes winner Mi Hermano Ramon, who is scheduled to start in the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita on May 26.
A 5-year-old gelding, Mi Hermano Ramon had a busy late autumn and winter campaign that included a win in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar last November and a game second to Johannes in the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita in December.
Monmouth Park, the famed track on the Jersey Shore, launches a 50-day 2025 race meet Saturday.
The track will race two days per week, Saturday and Sunday, until mid-June, when Fridays are added. Even a limited schedule would be difficult to imagine without the $10 million purse subsidy Monmouth annually receives from state government coffers. Last year, a state law passed automatically renewing a $20 million subsidy, split between Thoroughbred and Standardbred purses, through 2029.
The Quarter Horse filly The Lady Is a Vamp was disqualified from a win at Los Alamitos on April 27 because she had not reached the second anniversary of her foaling date, according a ruling published by Los Alamitos stewards on Saturday.
In California, 2-year-olds cannot race until they have reached two years of age. The Lady Is a Vamp is listed as having been foaled on May 3, 2023.
The discrepancy was not caught by trainer Paul Jones or any racing or track officials at Los Alamitos.
All-sources handle at Tampa Bay Downs at the 2024-2025 meet was $377,972,374, a 4.5 percent increase over the $361,483,261 handled at the 2023-2024 meet, it was announced Wednesday.
There were 821 races run at the 90-day meet, 266 on turf. Average field size was 8.47 horses per race. At the 90-day meet in 2023-2024, there were 821 races run, 253 on turf. Average field size was 8.26 horses per race.
Baeza, who drew into the Kentucky Derby from the also-eligible list last week, returned to trainer John Shirreffs’s stable at Santa Anita on Tuesday evening.
Baeza, who races for Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable, will be based in California in the buildup to his next scheduled start, the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 7. The Belmont is also expected to be the next start for Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty.
In the Derby, Baeza was beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Sovereignty and was a neck behind second-place finisher Journalism.
After wins in turf stakes at 1 1/4 miles and 1 1/2 miles at Santa Anita this spring, including the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Sakes last Saturday, Atitlan will have a different assignment later this month.
Trainer John Shirreffs said on Wednesday that the 4-year-old is scheduled to start in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on May 26. The $300,000 Shoemaker will be Atitlan’s first start at the distance since finishing third by 1 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Mathis Mile for 3-year-olds on Dec. 26.
Shirreffs said the decision is based on enhancing Atitlan’s value as a stallion.
Last weekend, Maryland-bred superstar Post Time made his long-awaited 5-year-old debut at Laurel and gave his hometown fans a show. By some quirk of the condition book, the two-time graded stakes winner was eligible for a conditional allowance and easily overwhelmed the field in a 13 1/4-length victory.
