MIAMI – Despite the fact Stormy Embrace won a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by virtue of her victory in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney earlier this summer at Gulfstream Park, trainer Kathleen O’Connell said she and owner Matt Vuskovich have decided to bypass the event.
Stormy Embrace, a homebred daughter of Circular Quay, has won the Princess Rooney each of the last two years. She finished 11th in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs.
Golden Gate Fields opens Thursday for a 36-day fall meeting and will try to continue its positive trend, which has seen an increase in handle in each of its past six race meetings.
“We have no intention of taking our foot off the gas,” says David Duggan, track vice president and general manager.
“This is an exciting time. We might see another superstar. We have some exciting 2-year-olds in the embryo stage we have to build up. They’ll be our standard-bearers for next year.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – While most Kentucky-based trainers will wait until a few days before the Breeders’ Cup to have their horses flown to California for the Nov. 1-2 championships at Santa Anita, trainer Dale Romans is opting to send his horses a bit earlier.
Led by Dennis’ Moment, the early favorite for the BC Juvenile, the Romans horses are booked to leave Sunday.
“They’ll work Friday at Churchill,” said Romans. “And they’ll have their last work over the track there at Santa Anita.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – You don’t become one of the top two favorites for the Kentucky Oaks by accident. Restless Rider had been so good and so consistent entering the filly classic that she was 4-1 on the Churchill Downs toteboard, second choice among a field of 14.
And then the bottom dropped out.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jockey Florent Geroux has been sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with a broken sternum suffered in a Sunday morning training accident at Keeneland.
Geroux was breezing Air Strike on the main track when the 4-year-old colt suddenly fell nearing the wire. Geroux was thrown hard to the ground and was subsequently transported to the nearby University of Kentucky Medical Center. Air Strike was not seriously injured.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said Sunday that Pennsylvania Derby winner Math Wizard will make his next start in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 rather than the Dirt Mile, which had also been under consideration for the former claimer.
Math Wizard turned in the first of his three scheduled workouts for the Classic on Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park.
"The Classic for sure," Joseph said a short while after the work. "The owner wants to go to the Classic. He sold some shares in him, and they want to go to the Classic for sure."
ARCADIA, Calif. – Just Grazed Me will make her graded stakes debut on turf in the Grade 3 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 after winning Saturday’s $100,351 California Distaff Handicap for statebred fillies and mares over the same course and distance.
Ridden by Geovanni Franco, Just Grazed Me closed from fourth of six to win by 1 3/4 lengths over the 3-year-old Don’t Sell.
“I like the way she pulled away in the last sixteenth,” trainer Phil D’Amato said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – With each passing week and as he watches another solid workout, trainer Chad Brown wavers on exactly what to do with Bricks and Mortar. Initially saying he was leaning toward cutting the four-time Grade 1 winner back in distance for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile, Brown said he is now giving serious thought to stretching Bricks and Mortar out to 1 1/2-miles in the $4 million Turf on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
Complexity and Instilled Regard, graded stakes winners from a year ago, are working their way back to the races.
On Sunday, at Belmont, Complexity, the Grade 1 Champagne winner in 2018, worked five furlongs in 1:00.36 in company with the maiden One-Eyed Jack. It was the fastest work of the morning at the distance and the 10th for Complexity since the summer.
Trainer Chad Brown said Complexity is “getting close” to a return. He has made only one start this year, finishing last of 11 in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens on June 8.
