ELMONT, N.Y. – Country Grammer, who won the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes earlier this year at Saratoga, will miss the remainder of his 3-year-old season due to a hind-end issue, trainer Chad Brown said.
Country Grammer was pointing to Saturday’s Preakness Stakes. But he came out of a work with an issue, Brown said, and was sent to Dr. Larry Bramlage, who found “a minor lameness issue behind.”
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ELMONT, N.Y. – Vekoma, unraced since winning the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on July 4, worked five furlongs in 1:02.65 on Friday morning at Saratoga as he continues preparations for a start in the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
While it has not yet been determined which Breeders’ Cup race Vekoma will run in, trainer George Weaver seems to be favoring the $2 million Sprint at six furlongs over the $1 million Dirt Mile, which at Keeneland is a two-turn race. He will most likely be pre-entered for both races.
MIAMI – Saffie Joseph Jr. spent much of his summer outside of South Florida, campaigning a string of his best horses at Saratoga while also making several forays into Kentucky. But his absence here on a regular basis did not stop Joseph from taking down leading trainer honors at the recently concluded Gulfstream Park spring-summer session, during which he won 59 races, 16 more than runner-up Mike Maker.
Coming off a stakes victory on closing weekend of the Saratoga meet, Thin White Duke looms large in the $120,438 Aspirant Stakes for 2-year-olds on Tuesday at Finger Lakes.
The Aspirant is one of two stakes for New York-bred juveniles this week at Finger Lakes – the other being the Lady Finger Stakes for fillies, which precedes it on Monday – that serve as local preps for the $100,000-added New York Breeders’ Futurity on Oct. 26.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There was a time immediately after the Kentucky Derby when Tiz the Law appeared a bit lethargic. That time has passed.
On Friday, in just his second work since his runner-up finish in the Kentucky Derby, Tiz the Law worked an extremely fast five furlongs in 57.87 seconds over the Belmont Park main track as the Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes winner continues preparations for a scheduled start in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 7.
BALTIMORE – Authentic and Art Collector both were pictures of health Thursday morning at Pimlico, where they’ll go postward Saturday as the clear-cut favorites in the 145th Preakness Stakes, the final leg of the 2020 Triple Crown.
Authentic, winner of the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, galloped about a mile and three-quarters with regular exercise rider Beto Gomez aboard. The track was fast after having been sloppy Wednesday morning. No rain is expected through the coming weekend.
The Louisiana Racing Commission on Wednesday voted 9-1 to allow the Louisiana Derby, Fair Grounds Oaks, and their respective preps run in New Orleans to be Lasix-free races.
The “Lasix rules exception” item was one of several taken up during a two-hour emergency meeting in which the agency approved an amended, 84-date meet for hurricane-damaged Delta Downs in Vinton. The meet will now start Nov. 24 and run through April 16.
Bob Baffert had run in the Kentucky Derby 19 times previously, and had won it five times, but the lead-up to this year’s race, he said, felt different. How could it not? The Derby was being run four months after it was originally scheduled, owing to a pandemic, in a city riven by the police killing of a woman in her home months earlier.
“It didn’t feel like the Derby,” Baffert said, “until the gates opened. Then it felt like it. It was on.”
The Gulfstream Park West meet opens Saturday with the first of 40 programs at the home of the old Calder Race Course. The meet closes Nov. 28.
Racing will be conducted Wednesday through Sunday starting next week. Gulfstream Park West also will race on Monday, Oct. 12. No spectators and only a limited number of owners will be allowed to attend the races.
The stakes schedule for the meet consists of just 11 races, each valued at $60,000. Nine of them are on the Nov. 14 Sunshine Millions Preview card.
MIAMI – When trainer Daniel Pita and his father, Manuel, decided in 2018 to purchase a farm in Ocala, Fla., and expand their stable, they never dreamed that within two years they’d have themselves a two-time Florida Sire Stakes winner and potential Breeders’ Cup candidate.
