Del Mar will increase purses for its five-week meeting from Oct. 31 to Nov. 29 compared to recent autumn seasons, the track announced earlier this week.
Purses will rise by about 10 percent compared to the 2019 autumn meeting and will be slightly higher than the recently completed summer meeting. Purses for the 2019 autumn meeting were slightly lower than prize money offered at the 2018 autumn meeting.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Two years ago, trainer Leonard Powell sent a French-bred filly from California to New York for the Belmont Oaks Invitational. While Fatale Bere didn’t run very well that day, finishing sixth, she came back to win the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks in her next start.
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Chris O’Dell, the 2019 champion Quarter Horse trainer, plans to move his stable from Los Alamitos to Ruidoso Downs in 2021, he said on Tuesday.
O’Dell, 59, trained in New Mexico before moving to Los Alamitos in the late 1990s, and said he plans to downsize his 40-horse stable, which has played a prominent role in leading races at Los Alamitos in recent years. The current stable star is the 4-year-old gelding Powerful Favorite, who won three derbies in 2019 and the $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap on Aug. 30, a top race for older horses.
ETOBIOKE, Ontario – War of Will, the handsome 2019 Preakness winner, drew post 8 and was pegged as the 2-1 favorite for the 24th running of Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, a Breeder’s Cup Win and You’re In qualifier.
War of Will began his career on the Woodbine turf in 2018, finishing third in a maiden sprint and second in the Grade 1 Summer. He had an eventful Triple Crown run last year that included a troubled trip in the Kentucky Derby.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Swiss Skydiver is under serious consideration for a run against male rivals in the Oct. 3 Preakness at Pimlico, although trainer Ken McPeek said there are other options for the star 3-year-old filly.
“I’d say we’re maybe 50-50 at this point,” McPeek said early Wednesday. “We’ve talked to the people at Pimlico and we’ll be keeping a pretty close eye on who else is planning to run.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Three-time Canadian champion sprinter Pink Lloyd is in the midst of a rare mid-season layoff through no fault of his own. There are no Tapeta sprints for him until the Grade 2 Kennedy Road on Nov. 21, and trainer Robert Tiller said he has no interest in trying the popular 8-year-old on the grass, a surface over which he has never competed.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The upcoming Keeneland fall meet will be closed to the general public due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic but the track will make accommodations for a “limited number” of owners, sponsors, box holders, and Keeneland Club members, the track announced on Tuesday.
The policy is a slight expansion on the protocols in place during a five-day meet this summer, when Keeneland barred spectators but allowed owners of stakes horses to attend the races on days when their horses were running. Keeneland did not hold a spring meet this year due to the pandemic.
Honor A. P., winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on June 6 and fourth in the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs, has been retired because of a tendon injury, trainer John Shirreffs said Monday.
Honor A. P. will enter stud in 2021 at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, the farm announced in a statement Monday. A fee has not been determined.
The injury was detected last week shortly after Honor A. P. returned to Shirreffs’s base at Santa Anita.
Santa Anita has postponed the start of its autumn meeting from Saturday to Sept. 25 because of a massive wildfire in the mountains near the racetrack, the track announced late Monday morning.
The wildfire began Sept. 6 and has grown to 33,000 acres with minimal containment.
“The current weather pattern has kept the smoke in the valley and the air quality is quite poor right now,” Aidan Butler, executive director of California racing for the track’s parent company, The Stronach Group, said in a statement.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmsusen is approaching a milestone of 9,000 career Thoroughbred training wins in North America, according to Equibase. He entered the Monday card at Louisiana Downs at 8,992.
Asmussen ranks as North America’s second-leading all-time trainer behind the late Dale Baird, who won 9,445 races. Asmussen has divisions of his stable at a number of tracks and will see action Wednesday night at Remington.
So will jockey Floyd Wethey Jr., who enters the card two wins from a milestone of 1,000 career riding victories.
