ELMONY, N.Y. – Stan the Man was entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Pimlico, but will instead run in the Grade 2, $150,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park, trainer John Terranova said Wednesday.
Stan the Man joins a short field for the Kelso that includes Grade 1 winners Code of Honor and Complexity as well as Endorsed and Mo Don’t No, who will scratch from Friday’s Grade 2 Phoenix at Keeneland to run here.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While trainer Todd Pletcher opted to skip the Preakness, he will still have plenty of action with his 3-year-old division Saturday as he entered a pair in the Grade 1, $250,000 Belmont Derby Invitational. The 1 1/4-mile turf race offers a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
No Word finished third behind Domestic Spending and Gufo in the Saratoga Derby, and will look to turn the tables on those two in the Belmont Derby.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Joe Hirsch Stakes has several familiar names in it, there is one stranger in the field who may be worth a look.
Laccario, the Group 1 German Derby winner of 2019, is slated to make his U.S. debut in the Joe Hirsch, a 1 1/2-mile turf stakes that tops a five-stakes program on Saturday’s 10-race Belmont Park card.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A group of jockeys gathered in the paddock garden at Santa Anita on Sunday morning, awaiting their mounts for the next session of workouts. A single subject dominated conversation – new whip rules that take effect this week at California tracks.
The centuries-old style of striking a horse with a full-arm motion was banned earlier this year by the California Horse Racing Board, replaced by rules dictating an underhanded motion and a limit of six strikes in a race.
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., the two-time reigning Eclipse Award winner, tested positive for COVID-19 and will not return to action on Sunday as scheduled.
Ortiz has not ridden since Sept. 16 at Kentucky Downs. Since then, he has been on suspension for 10 New York Racing Association racing days (Sept 18 through Oct 3) owing to a pair of careless riding infractions incurred earlier this year.
A New Jersey state budget passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Phil Murphy includes $15 million in subsidies for the state’s harness and Thoroughbred industries, down $5 million from the total outlay in the two years preceding.
New Jersey racing officials expressed satisfaction that the $15 million subsidy was inserted into the final budget bill, given that a preliminary budget submitted by Gov. Murphy to the legislature earlier in the year did not include any money for the horse industry at all.
Brian Hernandez Jr. is usually in the right spot, but on Kentucky Derby Day, through no fault of his own, he had a tough trip. Earlier in the week, his Derby mount, Art Collector, had to be scratched from the race with a minor hoof injury, depriving Hernandez of what would have been his best chance yet to win the Derby.
Indiana Grand officials on Tuesday decided that all assigned weights at the track will increase by three pounds to deal with issues raised by jockeys related to coronavirus protocols, the officials said.
BALTIMORE – It was a $5,000 maiden-claiming sprint on a forlorn Friday afternoon at Beulah Park in March 1998, and Tommy Drury was rooting for a horse as if there was no tomorrow.
“A friend of mine drove up with me that day,” Drury can recall, “and we screamed like crazy people from the sixteenth pole home.”
Saddle Me Up Clint, an 18-1 shot, was up in the last jump to become Drury’s first winner as a trainer in nearly 2 1/2 years. His most recent prior win had come in November 1995.
“Those were some tough times,” Drury said. “Real tough.”
