LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Major Fed was among the first horses vanned through the Churchill Downs stable gate early Monday, and he was the very first on the racetrack when 2020 training opened before dawn Wednesday.
“Naw, I wasn’t trying to tell anybody anything,” Greg Foley said with a laugh, “but come to think of it, I hope it does mean something.”
Age finally caught up to 7-year-old gelding Dr. Dorr, the Baffert family’s Grade 2 winner who has been retired from racing. Bob Baffert trained Dr. Dorr, a gelding owned by his wife, Jill Baffert, and named after their friend and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lawrence Dorr.
Dr. Dorr won five races and $526,077 from 20 starts. For a brief period in spring 2018, the son of Lookin At Lucky ranked among the top handicap horses in Southern California. He won the Grade 2 Californian Stakes by more than seven lengths with a 108 Beyer Speed Figure and finished second in the Grade 1 Gold Cup.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson said in an online question-and-answer session Tuesday that he’s planning for a June 6 or June 13 launch without fans for the Woodbine Thoroughbred meet, which was postponed from a scheduled start of April 18 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Government approval is pending.
Santa Anita has scheduled a nine-race program on Friday, its first since March 22, if the track receives approval from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to conduct racing amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
Track officials have been in contact with county health officials in recent weeks, but as of midday Tuesday had not received official word that racing can proceed. The track was ordered closed by county health officials March 27, less than an hour before racing was scheduled to start, when deemed a nonessential business because of the pandemic.
Fonner Park in Grand Island, Neb., announced Tuesday it has dropped one day of racing from its calendar, May 20. It is a Wednesday card, and it was part of 12 additional dates of racing approved for the month of May. The one-day reduction is being made as more racing opportunities are coming on line in late May and early June.
Fonner noted in a press release that horses from its stable area are starting to move on to new meets that will be starting in such states as Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, and Texas.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs officials announced Tuesday a partially updated list of qualifying races for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks while also making contingencies for the Preakness and/or Belmont Stakes in case either precedes the Derby.
Nine new points races for the Derby are listed, starting with the May 23 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill. Points for the Matt Winn have been increased to 85 (50-20-10-5), up substantially from the 17 points originally (10-4-2-1) designated for the race when Churchill began to reset its schedule earlier this month.
Without a viable option on dirt or synthetic – two surfaces over which she has won – W W Fitzy could make her turf debut in Saturday’s $75,000 Powder Break Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
W W Fitzy, a 4-year-old Illinois-bred daughter of Well Positioned, won an open-company allowance going a mile on dirt by eight lengths April 3 at Gulfstream, earning a career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure.
Constitution, the 2014 Florida Derby winner and sire of Kentucky Derby contenders Tiz the Law and Gouverneur Morris, had his first 2-year-old winner of 2020 when Repole Stable’s Hyperfocus won his debut here Saturday.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Hyperfocus raced greenly but still was able to run down Peppi to win by 1 1/4 lengths under Irad Ortiz Jr. Breakthrough, a son of 2016 Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, finished third.
Hyperfocus was purchased for $100,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September sale.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Under normal circumstances, Tonalist’s Shape’s seventh-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Oaks on March 28 may have derailed any chance she had of competing in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. But with this year’s renewal of the Kentucky Oaks postponed four months until Sept. 4 due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is plenty of time to regroup, which Tonalist’s Shape will do beginning Friday as the likely favorite here in the $75,000 Hollywood Wildcat Stakes.
