Improbable went nearly 18 months between wins in Grade 1 races from the Los Alamitos Futurity in December 2018 to Saturday’s Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita.
In the interim, Improbable was the beaten favorite in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and had developed a reputation as something of an underachiever. The win in the $300,500 Hollywood Gold Cup helped to change that.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine will have a 3:45 p.m. post time for Thursday racing this year, which will lead into a new 6 p.m. program on The Sports Network in Canada called “Racing Night Live” that begins this week. The two-hour broadcast will be a mix of Thoroughbred racing from Woodbine and Standardbred racing from sister track Woodbine Mohawk Park.
“Working with TSN on ‘Racing Night Live’ will help to open up horse racing to a new generation of Canadian sport fans,” Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson predicted.
The top two finishers from the Santa Anita Derby – Honor A. P. and Authentic – both came out of the race in good order, and both remain on the trail to the Kentucky Derby, but how both get there is uncertain owing to the new path all 3-year-olds must navigate toward the delayed Sept. 5 Derby this year.
The postponed Derby does, though, offer a chance for glory for the maiden winner Cezanne, who was an impressive winner on debut on the undercard Saturday, five weeks after the Derby would have been run.
Ten horses trained by Christophe Clement died Sunday when the horse trailer they were traveling in caught fire on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The Sallee horse van was bringing the horses to Belmont Park from the Payson Park training center in Florida. News reports said the accident happened just past Exit 8 on the Turnpike, around East Windor, N.J.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown said he would like to run Newspaperofrecord, winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Intercontinental, back in the Grade 1 Just a Game on June 27.
The race does come back just three weeks after Newspaperofrecord carved out fast fractions en route to winning the Intercontinental by four lengths. She earned a career-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure for her first start in 11 months.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Instilled Regard’s victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fort Marcy Stakes impressed trainer Chad Brown because it was done over a turf course with give in the ground.
“It showed you how good he ran to do that,” Brown said. “His preferred ground is definitely firm.”
Brown will be hoping for firm turf July 4, when he attempts to stretch Instilled Regard out to 1 1/4 miles in the Grade 1, $400,000 Manhattan Stakes. Instilled Regard is a two-time graded winner at 1 1/8 miles. He finished third in the Pegasus at 1 3/16 miles on turf.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Vekoma, the dominant winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap, and Code of Honor, the determined winner of the Grade 3 Westchester Stakes, both emerged from their races in good order, but it is far from certain that the two will meet in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on July 4 at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Shug McGaughey had to wait two months longer than he planned to bring his talented colt Performer back to the races. Now, he’ll have to wait some more.
Performer, the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap at Belmont Park, was forced to scratch from that race due to an ankle injury, McGaughey said Saturday morning.
The Carter was originally scheduled for April 4 at Aqueduct, but that race was postponed after the Aqueduct spring meet was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Illinois Racing Board approved amended race dates for Fairmount Park and a harness-racing meeting at Hawthorne but recessed a special meeting Friday without addressing a key item on the agenda regarding Arlington’s 2020 racing season.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Doug O’Neill, whose primary base is Southern California, was at Belmont Park Friday morning to oversee the training of about a dozen horses he has sent here for the spring/summer meet. Among them is the 3-year-old Fore Left, last year’s Tremont Stakes winner who is pointing to the Grade 1 Woody Stephens here on June 20.
O’Neill said that owners Paul and Zillah Reddam wanted to have a New York division to separate horses in similar categories, especially 2-year-olds, from those in California.
