Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse ventured to Oaklawn Park from his Florida base with a large division of runners this past meet and said plans are to return to the Hot Springs, Ark., track. The meet closed May 2.
“I’m already looking forward to next season,” Casse said.
Casse swept in and won two of the four Kentucky Derby points races at Oaklawn, taking the Smarty Jones with Strategic Risk and the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest with Silent Tactic.
Brad Cox on Thursday afternoon confirmed what he’d hinted at last week – Kentucky Oaks fourth-place finisher Prom Queen runs next in the Grade 1 Acorn at Saratoga.
“She breezed great this morning. She’s a go for the Acorn,” Cox said.
Doublecents, who put up one of the meet’s highest Beyer Speed Figures for a 3-year-old this past season at Oaklawn Park, has a summer stakes objective at Churchill Downs, according to his trainer, Brett Creighton.
He would like to make the Grade 3, $250,000 Maxfield, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-olds on June 28.
But before then, Creighton would like to run Doublecents and on Friday he entered him in a first-level allowance that will be run May 29 at Churchill.
Horses from seven different states have descended on Shakopee, Minn., for Saturday’s opening-night card at Canterbury Park.
The seven-race program drew runners who last started in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. In the first race alone, four of the five runners entered last ran at Tampa Bay Downs.
Monmouth Park will postpone two $100,000 turf stakes this weekend because of “inclement weather.” The Cliff Hanger Stakes and Miss Liberty Stakes, which were scheduled to run on Saturday, May 23, and Sunday, May 24, will instead be run on Saturday, May 30, alongside the $100,000 Jersey Derby.
The track drew its Saturday card before it made the announcement regarding poor weather conditions, leaving the Cliff Hanger off the card. Both stakes are set at 1 1/16 miles, with the Cliff Hanger running with 3-year-olds and up and the Miss Liberty featuring fillies and mares.
Jockey Juan Hernandez begins the four-day Santa Anita racing week on Friday with five mounts on the nine-race program. Five is a convenient figure for Hernandez, the precise number of wins he needs to record his 3,000th victory in the United States.
“Let’s do it on Friday,” he said on Wednesday morning. “Why wait until Saturday?”
Charles Town will cancel all three days of live racing this week, from Thursday to Saturday, due to “a water line leak near the main track.” Racing is expected to resume on Thursday, May 28, while plans are currently being made to potentially reschedule the canceled race dates.
Bob Baffert has a bunch of talented horses who have posted May workouts at Churchill Downs. It’s just that Baffert either doesn’t yet know or isn’t willing to publicly state where many of them will next race.
The $3 million auction horse Brant might or might not run in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens next month at Saratoga. Crude Velocity, brilliant winner of the Pat Day Mile last out, could run in the Stephens or try two turns in the Matt Winn at Churchill.
Burnham Square appears to be in great shape following his easy win in the Louisville Stakes on Saturday night at Churchill Downs. The 4-year-old gelding now has put up triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures winning the first two 1 1/2-mile grass races of his career – the Elkhorn at Keeneland preceded the Louisville – by 14 1/2 combined lengths.
For an encore, trainer Ian Wilkes plans to run this blossoming grass star June 13 at Churchill in the $225,000 Chorleywood, a listed race over 1 3/8 miles on grass.
After a half-mile workout May 16 at Churchill Downs, the 3-year-old filly Meaning probably is bound for Saratoga for the Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn on June 5.
Meaning’s drill, officially listed as 48.40, marked her first breeze since a second-place finish May 1 in the Kentucky Oaks.
“We’ve got a circle around the Acorn – that’s what we’re thinking,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “Seems like she bounced out of the Oaks well, and she’s been an easy horse to read all along.”
Meaning won the Santa Anita Oaks on April 4 and trained fabulously into the Kentucky Oaks.
