MIAMI - South Florida-based fan favorite Gunnevera, runner-up in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Classic and earner of over $5.5 million in his career, has been retired trainer Antonio Sano confirmed earlier this week.
Sano said Gunnevera is currently on the farm in Ocala for “a rest” and that he hopes he’ll be able to begin his new career as a stallion early in 2021.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to put together a good deal to breed him, although there is nothing in place at the moment,” said Sano.
Laurel Park in Maryland has received approval from local officials to allow as many as 250 spectators on-site as of Thursday, according to track officials.
The spectator count will not include owners who have already had access to the grounds, according to Sal Sinatra, president of Laurel Park’s parent company. Laurel will open a single concession stand for the ontrack patrons as of the Thursday card and will have betting locations open on-site for the first time since reopening on June 1.
Fair Grounds Race Course on Monday announced a 51-race, $7 million stakes schedule for a 76-day racing season that commences on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26.
The meet highlight, Louisiana Derby Day, comes March 20 next year. Fair Grounds increased the distance of all its important 3-year-old dirt-route stakes this past season – moving the Lecomte out to 1 1/16 miles, the Risen Star to 1 1/8 miles, and the Louisiana Derby to 1 3/16 miles – and will keep intact that format this season.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The popular Ontario owner-breeder James Sabiston passed away on Oct. 10 at 97.
A longtime member of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society and supporter of the Ontario breeding program, Sabiston operated Longview Farm near Stouffville, Ontario, for more than six decades, beginning in 1956 with his first stallion Bimini Bay. He went on to build a successful breeding operation and stood numerous sires, including Dawn Flight and Bold Revenue.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’d be easy to blame the latest defeat for Four Graces on her taking part in a sustained duel that seemed to set the table for a come-from-behinder.
But Ian Wilkes declines to do so. Wilkes, who on Saturday will send out Four Graces in the Grade 2, $200,000 Raven Run at Keeneland, gives “total respect” to Sconsin, the Greg Foley-trained filly who rallied to defeat Four Graces when last they met in the Grade 2 Eight Belles on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. won six races in his first three days back riding, topped by the Grade 1, $250,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup aboard Happy Saver.
Ortiz, who also won Saturday’s Grade 2 Sands Point on Tamahere and Sunday’s Grade 3 Matron on Royal Approval, missed 23 days of action due to suspensions for careless riding and testing positive for COVID-19.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Oh, baby, was it a good week for trainer Phil Gleaves, who on Oct. 6 won the Aspirant Stakes at Finger Lakes with Thin White Duke and on Sunday captured the Grade 3 Futurity at Belmont Park with Second of July.
The win by Second of July, his second in three weeks, earned him a spot in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, to be run Nov. 6 at Keeneland. It will be Gleaves’s fourth Breeders’ Cup starter, and his first since Mambo Meister finished fifth in the 2009 Dirt Mile.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Tacitus may have been a huge disappointment in Saturday’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, but it was hardly a lost weekend for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
Shortly after Tacitus finished third as the 3-5 favorite in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Mott watched from Belmont as Harvey’s Lil Goil won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Keeneland.
MIAMI – On Sunday morning, Tonalist’s Shape worked five furlongs in 1:00.62 at Gulfstream Park. On Monday morning, she boarded a van for Keeneland where she’ll make her next start in Saturday’s Grade 2 Raven Run, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies.
Tonalist’s Shape will be looking to get back to her top form after finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on July 18 and fifth in the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks on Aug. 28. She was favored in both races.
Papa’s Golden Boy will appreciate the class relief and the move back to a sprint when he runs in a nonwinners-of-two allowance race for 3-year-olds and up at Emerald Downs on Thursday.
The six-furlong dash drew five horses and goes as the first of 10 races. Post time is 5 p.m. Pacific.
The conditions of the race allow Washington-bred nonwinners of three to run. The last time Papa’s Golden Boy ran in a non-stakes race, he romped in a similar race on July 16.
