Oaklawn Park on Thursday announced a number of proposed racing integrity policies it hopes to have in place when the meet opens Jan. 22, including prohibiting the use of the diuretic Lasix in qualifying-points races for the Kentucky Derby or Kentucky Oaks and the integration of safety riding crops.
Some of the policies are subject to regulatory approval, with passage expected in advance of the meet. The season is set to feature record purses. It runs through May 1.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Happy Saver, the undefeated winner of the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, was sent to the Kentucky farm of owners Alain and Gerard Wertheimer in Lexington, Ky. on Wednesday and will a get two-month freshening before returning for a 4-year-old campaign.
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ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher was able to get workouts into three of his Breeders’ Cup contenders Thursday morning over the training track before the heavy rain came down.
Mutasaabeq, preparing for the $1 million Juvenile Turf, worked a half-mile in 49.58 seconds in company with the debut-winning 2-year-old filly Malathaat. Mutasaabeq, on the outside, went his opening quarter in 24.83, got his second quarter in 24.75 and galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.19, six furlongs in 1:14.80, and seven-eighths in 1:28.26.
Rombauer, a game second in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes on Sept. 26 at Santa Anita, worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 on Thursday at Santa Anita in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.
Rombauer, ridden by exercise rider Osman Cedeno, worked in company with a stablemate and was clear of the competition in the latter portion of the workout, trainer Michael McCarthy said.
“He kind of got a little lost when he left his company a little bit,” McCarthy said. “We need to keep his mind on business.”
Sharing, winner of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita and three other stakes, is expected to have her debut against older fillies and mares in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at a mile on turf Nov. 29 at Del Mar.
Trainer Graham Motion said Wednesday that Sharing will be one of several stakes-caliber runners he plans to send to Del Mar for the final days of the track’s autumn meeting, which begins Saturday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Kelly Breen has come to learn first hand how much Firenze Fire dislikes a wet track.
“We see that he doesn’t have a foot for it, he’s run horrible in it,” Breen said. “Throw out the rain and we’re in good shape.”
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.
