In a typical season, Tampa Bay Downs would be moving into the final days of its meet. But nothing about this season is typical, and Tampa, which is one of the few major tracks that has been able to continue racing during the coronavirus pandemic, has applied to extend its meeting.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – A backstretch worker at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., and an employee of the track have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in the past three weeks but no further cases have emerged, a spokesperson for the parent company of the track, Churchill Downs, confirmed on Wednesday morning.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Ce Ce, who won her second straight Grade 1 race Saturday in the $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park, has some family business to attend to at Del Mar, according to trainer Michael McCarthy.
“During the summer, her goal will be the Clement Hirsch,” McCarthy said of the Grade 1 fixture run over the same 1 1/16-mile distance of the Apple Blossom.
McCarthy noted the race is named for the late father of Bo Hirsch, who bred and owns Ce Ce.
Ce Ce was scheduled to arrive back at her Santa Anita base Tuesday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Channing Hill remained in a local hospital Monday morning as he continues to recuperate from injuries sustained Friday, when he was thrown from his mount in the second race at Oaklawn.
Hill was diagnosed with three compression fractures in his lower back, according to his agent, John Gasper. Gasper said the rider was expected to be released from St. Vincent hospital on Tuesday. Hill will be sidelined indefinitely.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the postponement of the Kentucky Derby from the first Saturday in May until the first Saturday in September, the opportunity has arisen for late-developing 3-year-olds to insert themselves in the Derby picture in the months ahead.
In early March, when Scott Chaney was in advanced discussions to replace the retiring Rick Baedeker as the executive director of the California Horse Racing Board, there were four tracks operating throughout the state.
When Chaney officially began the job last Thursday, California was down to one – the Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred evening meeting at Los Alamitos. Thoroughbred meetings at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita and the harness meeting in Sacramento have been temporarily halted by county government officials because of the coronavirus outbreak.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Irad Ortiz Jr., leading jockey at the Gulfstream Park Championship meet who has not ridden since March 19 due to the coronavirus pandemic, will return to the saddle starting Saturday at Gulfstream Park, his agent, Steve Rushing, said Sunday.
Ortiz cited concerns for the safety of his family in light of the coronavirus pandemic as the reason he would cease riding on March 19. Ortiz, who was scheduled to ride Portos for trainer Todd Pletcher two days later in the Louisiana Derby, won two races on his final day in the saddle.
Queen’s Plate prospect Edge of Fire breezed five-eighths in 1:03.80 on Sunday at the Palm Meadows training center in preparation for Saturday’s $75,000 Unbridled Stakes for 3-year-olds at Gulfstream Park.
Trained by Jimmy Jerkens for Chiefswood Stables, Edge of Fire was an in-hand debut winner going six furlongs on Feb. 1 at Gulfstream. When moving out to a mile in a March 27 allowance, he wound up second to the unbeaten Money Moves, while boosting his Beyer Speed Figure output from 67 to 85.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The multiple Group 1 winner Letruska remained unbeaten on dirt after winning her 4-year-old debut impressively last Thursday at Oaklawn Park.
Letruska, who invaded from South Florida for the allowance route for fillies and mares, wired the field while covering a mile and a sixteenth in a sharp 1:42.38 and earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 94.
“She ran very, very good,” trainer Fausto Gutierrez said Saturday. “She made a big performance.”
The five-time stakes winner Sharp Samurai worked Saturday as he approaches $1 million in career earnings. But with racing temporarily suspended at Santa Anita since March 22 because of the coronavirus outbreak, reaching that goal may take longer than hoped.
Sharp Samurai is one of more than 2,000 Thoroughbreds based at Southern California tracks and training centers that prepare each day for the resumption of racing. The problem is owners and trainers do not know when racing will restart.
