Got Stormy is ready to run. Moreover, she needs a win. Saturday’s $75,000 Powder Break Stakes at Gulfstream Park looks like it could provide Got Stormy the opportunity to accomplish both.
Weather permitting.
Got Stormy prefers firm turf. A tropical system off the east coast of Florida could bring an undetermined amount of rain to the area Friday and Saturday. Mark Casse, the trainer of Got Stormy, will monitor the, ahem, potential storm.
Racing is back at Santa Anita.
The track received approval from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Wednesday afternoon to resume racing Friday under strict protocols necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak.
The same government agency told Santa Anita to cease racing on March 27 when the track was deemed a nonessential business during the pandemic.
Canterbury Park moved toward conducting a 2020 race meet, filing a request for a 52-day season with the Minnesota Racing Commission on Wednesday.
Canterbury applied for an amended racing season that would run June 10 through Sept. 9 with racing Monday through Thursday. The Shakopee, Minnesota track said in a news release that it would work with the commission and the Minnesota Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association – which also has to approve the track’s racing dates request – to establish post times.
LOUISVILLE, KY. – Monomoy Girl is foremost among the opening-day entries for Saturday at Churchill Downs as the heavy favorite in race 4, one of four allowances on a terrific program. Winner of the Kentucky Oaks and an Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly in 2018, the now 5-year-old mare will be making her first start since she won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill on Nov. 3, 2018, a span of more than 18 months.
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.
