Trainers Chad Brown and Mark Casse are sending seven horses to Santa Anita for graded stakes on turf from Saturday through Monday.
Brown, who has won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding trainer the last four years, has five scheduled starters – Rockemperor in Saturday’s Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes, a $200,000 race at 1 1/4 miles; and two runners in each of the two Grade 1 races on Monday – the Shoemaker Mile and the Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles.
Trainers keep early hours, but Brendan Walsh awoke in a start the other morning at 3 a.m., earlier than usual. “My mind started to running,” he said.
That’s not the only thing he has running. After more than 7 1/2 months, Walsh on Saturday will finally get his prized colt Maxfield back to the races when he makes his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3, $150,000 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs. The anticipation has left Walsh both excited and anxious.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Saffie Joseph Jr. has always wanted to run a 3-year-old at Churchill Downs in May. The 33-year-old trainer won’t get to do it in the Kentucky Derby – not yet, anyway – but he’ll try to move forward on the Derby trail Saturday when sending out Ny Traffic in the Matt Winn Stakes.
“The race fits for us, schedule-wise,” Joseph said this week by phone from Florida. “We’d like to run him in one more prep after this and hopefully pick up some more Derby points along the way.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Bret Calhoun is confident Mr. Money will get back to form in the $100,000 Blame Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs after a disappointing 4-year-old debut.
“You can draw a line through that last one,” said Calhoun, referring to a sixth-place finish in the April 11 Oaklawn Mile. “It started raining 15 or 20 minutes before the race and he never got settled, never took hold of the bridle, never got into the race.
WHO’S HOT
The lightly raced, unbeaten Pneumatic, who makes his stakes debut Saturday in the Matt Winn at Churchill Downs, is the latest newcomer to the Derby Watch top 20. He comes in as a 50-1 shot on the line set by Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby. There were no changes over the past fortnight to the other 19 runners in the top 20, with Nadal still slightly favored at 7-2 over the pair of Charlatan and Tiz the Law, who are 4-1. Those three are all under consideration for the reconstituted Belmont Stakes, set for June 20.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – In a tight vote, Starship Jubilee was crowned 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year on Tuesday night during a virtual version of the 45th annual Sovereign Awards, put on by the Jockey Club of Canada.
Starship Jubilee, trained by Kevin Attard for Blue Heaven Farm, nosed out the popular sprinter Pink Lloyd in the voting by a point total of 108-105. The voting is done by Canadian racing writers and racing officials.
Lone Star Park near Dallas is scheduled to open for racing Friday. The track is working closely with the Texas Racing Commission to facilitate the start of live racing, which was postponed from its April 16 start date due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The racing will be conducted without fans in the grandstand.
In a world turned upside down, perhaps it is only fitting this year that the Triple Crown will be run out of order.
The Belmont Stakes, traditionally the last and longest leg of Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, will be run June 20 and at the shortened distance of 1 1/8 miles around one turn, the New York Racing Association announced Tuesday. That means the Belmont – typically run at 1 1/2 miles five weeks after the Kentucky Derby – will be run 11 weeks before the Kentucky Derby (Sept. 5) and 15 weeks before the Preakness (Oct. 3).
The Grade 3 Indiana Derby, newly designated as a race earning points toward qualifying for the rescheduled Kentucky Derby, will be held July 8, a Wednesday, according to the track where the race is held.
Indiana Grand, which is hoping to reopen June 15, announced the date of the race Tuesday, along with the rest of the stakes races that the track is hoping to run during a rescheduled meet running through Nov. 18. The track also released its first condition book for the upcoming meet.
Jockey Mike Luzzi, a fixture in New York, plans to ride at the upcoming meet at Lone Star Park near Dallas.
Bradley White, who represents Luzzi’s son, Lane Luzzi, said Tuesday he also will be representing Mike Luzzi.
Lane Luzzi has been riding in the region for the past few years and also is on deck for the meet at Lone Star. Mike Luzzi had been planning a trip to town to check in on Lane.
“He wanted to come down and visit,” said White, “and I said, ‘Why don’t you bring your tack?’ He said, ‘That’s a good idea.' "
