Multiple graded stakes winner Diamond Oops returned to the work tab Wednesday morning at Palm Meadows, going a half-mile in 51.80 seconds over the main track.
It was his first breeze since Feb. 16, when he breezed seven furlongs on turf.
While trainer Patrick Biancone said he didn’t see anything on the Churchill Downs stakes schedule that enticed him, he is getting the 5-year-old gelding ready for a summer and fall campaign.
One of the horses likely to mentioned on Mark Casse’s Hall of Fame plaque is War of Will, who gave Casse his first U.S. classic victory in last year’s Preakness Stakes.
In 2020, Casse – announced Wednesday as the newest trainer elected to the Hall of Fame – hopes to make War of Will a Grade 1 winner on turf, a journey that begins Saturday in the $75,000 Sunshine Forever Stakes, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over Gulfstream Park’s turf course.
The purse for the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby at 1 1/8 miles on July 4 has been raised by $50,000, to $150,000, at the discretion of management.
Track vice president Jack Liebau said on Wednesday that Los Alamitos has been told the race will have a role in the points system of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Sept. 5. The Kentucky Derby was postponed from May 2 because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Churchill Downs officials have not announced the new points structure for the Kentucky Derby.
On the day he could have been going for his second victory in the Kentucky Derby, trainer Barclay Tagg was a little more than 1,000 miles away from Churchill Downs, at the Palm Meadows training center in South Florida. And instead of running for the roses with his colt Tiz the Law in the biggest race in the country, one he won in 2003 with Funny Cide, Tagg was sending Tiz the Law through a five-furlong work, marking time, waiting to see what’s next.
“We’re all just treading water,” Tagg said in a telephone interview earlier this week.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There are no stakes on the Churchill schedule until May 23, but it might not take long for a major player to make an appearance.
Monomoy Girl is eligible for a classified allowance scheduled for the May 16 opener. The $85,000, one-mile race would make for a suitable comeback spot for the 5-year-old mare, who has gone unraced since winning the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November 2018. An alternate spot is the $100,000 Shawnee, a new 1 1/16-mile race on May 23.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brendan Walsh got the extra time he needed with Maxfield. Soon it’ll be up to the colt to capitalize on the reprieve.
Maxfield is widely regarded as a major contender for the 146th Kentucky Derby, but only because the coronavirus crisis forced Churchill Downs officials to postpone it from May 2 to Sept. 5. If the race had been run as originally scheduled, Maxfield would have been hard-pressed to make the race – let alone win it.
Imprimis, one of the top turf sprinters in the country, has had a minor setback in his bid to return to action this year but should be ready to go by late summer, with the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland his ultimate goal, trainer Joe Orseno said earlier this week.
Imprimis has not raced since finishing sixth in last year’s Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. He had throat surgery not long after that race, and needed a second, similar surgery, more recently, Orseno said.
