Fri, 10/25/2019 - 15:46

Graded winners Complexity, Instagrand try to reboot careers

Barbara D. Livingston
Instagrand, shown training at Santa Anita on March 4, is cutting back in distance for the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile.

ELMONT, N.Y. – On the comeback trail from disappointing 3-year-old campaigns after winning graded stakes at age 2, Complexity and Instagrand both find themselves in the same second-level allowance race on Sunday’s closing-day card at Belmont Park.

The 6 1/2-furlong race, which goes as race 3, drew a field of eight.

Complexity, trained by Chad Brown for Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, won the Grade 1 Champagne here in October 2018. After finishing 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Complexity had an ankle chip that needed to be removed.

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 15:00

Vino Rosso's work shows he's still on top of game

Susie Raisher
Vino Rosso works a half-mile in 48.07 on the Belmont Park training track Friday morning.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The belief Vino Rosso’s connections held that he would be better as he got older is not only evident in the speed figures of his last three races, but it has proven to be true in his morning training as well.

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 13:20

Ward playing to win with strong trio in BC Juvenile Turf Sprint

Barbara D. Livingston
Trainer Wesley Ward has won a combined 16 of 30 starts at the Turfway Park holiday meet and current winter-spring meet.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Horse trainers are humans, too. Wesley Ward can be as robotic as the next guy devoting 100 hours to his workweek, but he’ll also take time to laugh and joke or to smell the flowers, as they say.

In fact, Ward wasn’t even here at Santa Anita in 2014, when his six Breeders’ Cup starters recorded two wins, three seconds, and one third. He was at home in Florida, watching the races on his phone while his son Riley was competing in a high school track meet.

“State championships,” said Ward, underlining the importance.

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 12:25

Maxfield puts in sharp drill for Breeders' Cup Juvenile

Coady Photography
Abscond breezes a half-mile in 48.80 seconds on Friday at Keeneland.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Maxfield has his game face on.

The Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity winner, who is expected to be among the favorites for next week's Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, turned in his final major work toward that race with a strong half-mile in 47.80 seconds on Friday morning at Keeneland.

"And he looks like he was just out galloping," trainer Brendan Walsh said after Godolphin's homebred colt returned to the barn.

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 12:10

Beschizza's return from injury in sight

Coady Photography
Adam Beschizza will be out at least three weeks.

LOUISVILLE, KY. – Jockey Adam Beschizza intends to return to action Nov. 6 at Churchill, exactly four weeks after suffering a broken collarbone in an Oct. 9 spill on the Keeneland turf, according to agent Liz Morris.

Beschizza will ride at Churchill before returning to Fair Grounds for the bulk of a 2019-20 meet, which runs through March 29. Beschizza was the leading rider at the New Orleans track last year with 82 wins.

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 12:10

Amoss, on the mend, watches Serengeti Empress work for Breeders' Cup Distaff

Emily Shields
Serengeti Empress will make her first two-turn start in the Cotillion since she won the Kentucky Oaks (above).

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With trainer Tom Amoss on hand to watch, Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress was sent through her final pre-race breeze toward the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, going a half-mile early Friday in 47.60 seconds at Churchill.

Amoss was released Wednesday from a Louisville hospital following a five-day stay when suffering from complications of appendicitis.

“I came out to the track this morning, but otherwise I’m totally taking it easy,” he said. “It’s been a pretty tough ordeal.”

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 11:30

Sadler in with several chances to build some Breeders' Cup momentum

Barbara D. Livingston
The John Sadler-trained Catalina Cruiser will get a second shot in the Breeders’ Cup, this time over his home track.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer John Sadler sent out his first Breeders’ Cup runner in 1988, when he was just 32 years old, and even though he lost that year with the sprinter Olympic Prospect, he had to figure that first win would come soon.

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 10:56

Ollie's Candy a Breeders' Cup Distaff surprise package in a plain brown wrapper

Emily Shields
Ollie's Candy is nearing her 2019 debut and first start for new trainer John Sadler.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Perhaps if Ollie’s Candy had a little more physical appeal, her status as a legit contender in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff would be easier to accept. Based on looks, she is just ordinary.

Or if her owners bred more than one or two mares a year, it might be easier to believe they somehow ended up with one of the top fillies in California, a filly they initially tried to sell. No one wanted her.

Fri, 10/25/2019 - 09:10

Laurel cancels training and racing through the weekend due to broken water pipe under main track

Laurel Park has canceled training and racing through the weekend as repairs continue on a broken water pipe under the main track in the vicinity of the second finish line near the clubhouse turn.

The Saturday and Sunday cancellations are the third and fourth since the water pipe broke. The Thursday and Friday cards and Friday's Stronach 5 had previously been called off. Laurel Park was scheduled to host the first and last leg of the weekly multi-track wager.

Thu, 10/24/2019 - 15:06

Breeders' Cup Clocker: Imperial Hint blazes through half-mile at Monmouth

Bill Denver/EquiPhoto
BC Sprint contender Imperial Hint covered a half-mile in 46 seconds on Thursday morning at Monmouth Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Thursday was a relatively quiet morning on the Breeders’ Cup front at Santa Anita, with only two potential starters turning in official works. But that will change quickly with at least a dozen or so Breeders’ Cup workers on the schedule here Friday and plenty more to follow throughout the remainder of the weekend.

The weather in Southern California remains picture-perfect – sunny, with temperatures in the high 50s when the track opens for training at 5 a.m., but quickly rising into the low 80s by the time the last horse is off the track at 10 a.m.