The event will again offer nine races, with purses totaling $835,000 in 2020, down from $1,110,000 a year ago. The Claiming Crown highlights the opening weekend of the 2020-21 Championship meet, which kicks off on Dec. 2.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A well-matched field of 10 3-year-olds and upward will clash in the nominal Sunday feature, a $77,000 first-level allowance scheduled for a mile on the turf. Oak Hill figures among the core of favorites when looking to revert to a two-back maiden triumph at Saratoga for trainer Al Stall Jr.
First post is 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with sunshine and a high of 73 in the local forecast. Live televised coverage is available on FS1 (12:30-4) and FS2 (4-5:30).
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Miguel Mena is expected to be out of action for a few weeks after being thrown to the turf by his mount, Urbana, at the finish of the fifth race Thursday. Mena suffered two cracked ribs in the incident and took off the balance of his mounts.
Agent Joe Santos said Mena could return “by the second week of Keeneland,” which opens Oct. 2.
“No punctures or anything else internal,” Santos said. “He heals up pretty quick.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mr. Big News was sent through his first serious work since finishing third in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby when breezing a half-mile in 48.80 seconds early Friday over a fast Churchill surface. The Giant’s Causeway colt is one of about a dozen early prospects for the Oct. 3 Preakness at Pimlico.
Trainer Bret Calhoun said Mr. Big News “was very sharp” in what was intended to be something of a maintenance work.
“We were only looking for a half in about 50, but he was full of energy and galloped out great,” said Calhoun.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Walt Bindner Jr. couldn’t remember the last time he and jockey Rafael Bejarano teamed to win a race. But he sure remembers that one time.
“Of course I do,” Bindner said the morning after Tiz Our Turn ($10.20) carried Bejarano to a 3 3/4-length triumph in a $38,415 starter-allowance Thursday over the Churchill Downs turf.
Canterbury Park on Thursday night concluded a 2020 racing season simultaneously wildly successful and relatively meaningless to the track’s bottom line, with horse racing’s revenue distribution system at the heart of the paradox.
Jolie Olimpica, winner of two graded stakes at Santa Anita this year, is recovering from a recent health setback that prevented her from starting in the Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint on Sept. 12.
Jolie Olimpica was found to be ill in the hours before she was scheduled to be flown from Santa Anita to Kentucky Downs.
“She had a 104 temperature,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “Thank God we didn’t put her on the airplane.”
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Margot’s Boy, a game second in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6, is likely to start in the Grade 2 Twilight Derby on Oct. 18, trainer Craig Lewis said Thursday.
The $200,000 Twilight Derby is run at 1 1/8 miles on turf and could lead to a start for Margot’s Boy in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf Nov. 28 at Del Mar.
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Santa Anita officials canceled workouts for the second time in three days on Thursday because of poor air quality caused by a massive wildfire in the mountains near the racetrack.
Air-quality issues are likely to persist through the weekend, government officials said. As of Thursday morning, the fire had spread to more than 50,000 acres and was only 3 percent contained.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After watching Firenze Fire finish a distant fourth in the Grade 1 Carter this past spring and an even more distant seventh in the Grade 1 Forego in his most recent start, trainer Kelly Breen was reasonably certain it was the wet racetracks that were responsible for those two uncharacteristically poor performances. A Grade 1-placed sprinter, Firenze Fire had won three of his previous four outings on dry land, including the Grade 2 True North here early this summer.
