ELMONT, N.Y. – As he closes in on becoming just the eighth Thoroughbred trainer to reach the 5,000-win plateau, Todd Pletcher says the milestone will conjure memories of victories large and small.
In New York, where he has been based for 25 years, Pletcher has won virtually every big race offered on this circuit.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mr. Big News, third in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, came out of his distant seventh in the Preakness last Saturday in great shape and could make his next start in an undercard stakes on Breeders’ Cup weekend (Nov. 6-7) at Keeneland, trainer Bret Calhoun said.
“We might give him a little rest, or we might look at trying the turf in the Bryan Station,” a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds on Nov. 6, Calhoun said. All nine prior starts for Mr. Big News, a Giant’s Causeway colt, have come over dirt.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Magic Attitude, a dazzling winner as the favorite in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks in her stateside debut last month, heads a field of nine 3-year-old turf fillies in the sixth and final Grade 1 race of the Keeneland fall meet, the 37th running of the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Saturday.
Magic Attitude arrived here Tuesday following an overnight van ride from her base at the Fair Hill Training Center in northern Maryland. Arnaud Delacour trains the Galileo filly for the Lael Stables of Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Barbaro fame.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rocco O’Connor and Jake Romans have been best buds since a very young age. Prior to attending the same Louisville high school together, they grew up as tots on the racetracks of Kentucky, mostly at Churchill Downs, where their fathers trained horses.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Leading trainer Mark Casse has been red-hot at Woodbine, and he will be well represented in stakes here in the coming weeks and at the Breeders’ Cup in November at Keeneland.
Casse has a host of Breeders’ Cup runners coming out of Woodbine, most notably Gretzky the Great for the Juvenile Turf, March to the Arch for the Mile, and War of Will for the Dirt Mile.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $13 million stakes schedule for the upcoming 2020-21 Gulfstream Park Championship meet has been released, with the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf, and $800,000 Florida Derby topping the list of 75 stakes to be offered during the course of the session that begins Dec. 2.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Sharing, winner of the Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes on Sept. 4, will not make Saturday’s Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland due to a foot issue, said Aron Wellman, head of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which owns the filly with Gainesway Stable.
“We’ve been battling foot issues with her all year,” Wellman said. “She’s on the cusp of being ready for the Queen Elizabeth, but she couldn’t make it. The timing came up a little too quick. Unfortunately, that’s the way it goes.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – While Beldame Stakes winner Horologist is unlikely to be supplemented to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Beldame runner-up Point of Honor is likely to run in that race on Nov. 7 at Keeneland, Aron Wellman, head of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which owns the filly, said Monday.
Her presence would give Eclipse a 1-2 punch in the Distaff as it also has Valiance, winner of Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Dayoutoftheoffice will make her first start since impressively winning the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga in July when she runs in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Frizette Stakes, trainer Tim Hamm confirmed Monday.
Dayoutoftheoffice was off the work tab for about a month in mid-summer, but Hamm said that was by design.
“She had no major issues,” Hamm said. “We decided to give her a little breather and have her fresh for the end of the year and make a run at the Breeders’ Cup.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – After missing three weeks of riding due to suspensions and a case of COVID-19, two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. is looking forward to getting back to work this week at Belmont Park.
Ortiz is named to ride in eight of the 10 races Thursday at Belmont, marking his first mounts since Sept. 16, when he rode at Kentucky Downs. Ortiz served two five-day suspensions encompassing the first 10 days of the Belmont fall meet for careless riding infractions incurred earlier this summer.
