SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Seventeen years later and Jack Knowlton is still asked about the yellow school bus that took him, his partners in Sackatoga Stable, their family, and friends from a downtown Louisville hotel to Churchill Downs for the 2003 Kentucky Derby.
As Knowlton, the managing partner of Sackatoga, tells it, fellow partner Dave Mahan asked a manager at the Galt House hotel how to transport 53 people to the track. Mahan was quoted a price of $3,600 for a luxury bus.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice said she will have mixed emotions Saturday watching the Kentucky Derby on television from Saratoga. She would much rather be in Louisville, putting the saddle on Max Player in what would have been her first Kentucky Derby.
But following Max Player’s third-place finish to Tiz the Law in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 8, owners George Hall and the SportBLX Thoroughbreds syndicate transferred the horse to Steve Amsussen, saying publicly they wanted a locally based trainer to prepare the horse for the Derby.
Jockey Juan Hernandez is nearly certain to finish the Del Mar summer meeting among the first four riders in the standings. It has been a successful meet that has convinced the former leading rider at Golden Gate Fields to remain in Southern California.
“I’m really happy,” Hernandez said on Wednesday. “The owners are helping me a lot. I like it so far.”
Hernandez is not the only former Golden Gate rider based in Southern California. Abel Cedillo made the move last year, and finished the six-month Santa Anita winter-spring meeting in June second in the standings.
A majority share of Dr. Schivel, the expected favorite in Monday’s Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity, was sold earlier this week to Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal.
Dr. Schivel will remain with trainer Luis Mendez through Monday’s $250,000 Del Mar Futurity and will be transferred to trainer Mark Glatt after the race, according to Tim Cohen of Rancho Temescal.
A colt by Violence, Dr. Schivel won his third start in a maiden special weight race at six furlongs on Aug. 8 by 5 3/4 lengths.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Grade 2 winner Break Even, who was eased and vanned off as the favorite in the off-the-turf Unbridled Sidney on Wednesday at Churchill Downs, has been retired to broodmare duty, breeder and owner Richard Klein confirmed.
“My talented filly Break Even bled in her race today,” Klein wrote on Twitter. “What a special filly starting her career with six straight wins. Going home to become a mom. Looking forward to seeing her babies run.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – No, your eyes did not deceive you – that was a colt galloping in a D. Wayne Lukas saddle towel during the reserved training window for Kentucky Derby entrants.
Hall of Fame trainer Lukas, who has started 49 horses in the Kentucky Derby and won the classic four times, is squiring around Money Moves this week for his former assistant Todd Pletcher, the only trainer who has started more horses in the race than his mentor, with 54.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With just a week to go before the 161st running of the $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine, the field for the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown is starting to take shape.
A total of 16 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds are probable starters for the 1 1/4-mile classic on Tapeta, with the winners of the final stakes preps on Aug. 15, Curlin’s Voyage in the Woodbine Oaks and Clayton in the Plate Trial Stakes, headlining the early field.
Kentucky Derby entrant King Guillermo did not train Thursday morning at Churchill Downs and, in a developing story, trainer Juan Carlos Avila said the colt has "a little problem."
Avila declined to elaborate on the nature of the issue, but indicated that the colt would be thoroughly examined by a veterinarian that day, and that more information on his status would be forthcoming later Thursday.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Civil Union, winner of the River Memories Stakes on closing day at Belmont Park, and My Sister Nat, winner of the Grade 3 Waya Stakes here Aug. 8, top the field entered for the Grade 2, $200,000 Glens Falls Stakes, scheduled for 1 3/8 miles over the inner turf Saturday.
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