Grade 3, $150,000 Iroquois Stakes, 1 1/16 miles, Churchill Downs, Sept. 15, 2018
(10 Derby qualifying points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)
Winner: Cairo Cat, by Cairo Prince
Trainer: Kenny McPeek
Jockey: Brian Hernandez Jr.
Owner: Walking L Thoroughbreds LLC
Beyer Speed Figure: 80
Grade 1, $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes, 1 1/16 miles, Santa Anita, Sept. 29, 2018
(10 Derby qualifying points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)
Winner: Game Winner, by Candy Ride
Trainer: Bob Baffert
Jockey: Joel Rosario
Owner: Gary and Mary West
Beyer Speed Figure: 97
Equibase has issued a revised chart of the Kentucky Derby to amend the finish-line margins posted by several horses in the field, including a 10-length change to the margin between Solomini, who finished 10th in the race, and the 11th-place horse, Firenze Fire.
Patrick and Frank McGoey are big believers in karma.
“I believe in the racing gods,” said Patrick after winning the 2018 Kentucky Derby Betting Challenge. “If you do the right thing, it pays off.”
Patrick knows a little something about good payoffs. The two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge built his bankroll to $99,640 this weekend, netting an additional $100,000 in prize money plus an entry to bid to become a three-time winner at the BCBC (nobody else even has two).
There’s a song from “The Crow,” by Jane Siberry, called “It Can’t Rain All the Time,” which in 2019 should become the official Kentucky Derby anthem. It’s not much of a sing-along, but it’s a lot better than trying to keep a straight face through lyrics like “… the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home.”
Justify, the Kentucky Derby winner, jogged fine at the barn on Monday morning at Churchill Downs, one day after his reaction to walking over gravel in the stable area with some minor irritation on his left hind leg caused social media to go into a tizzy.
"He's so much better today," trainer Bob Baffert said Monday via telephone from Santa Anita while watching his horses train. “Believe me, half those horses who ran on that track had something. It’s from running in the mud. It's like diaper rash.
When Scat Daddy retired to stud in 2008, he exemplified four of the five characteristics most commercial breeders look for first in a prospective stallion. He had been precocious enough to win a Grade 1 at 2, showed two-turn ability by winning a Grade 1 at 3, he came from an excellent female family, and he was an outstanding physical specimen - a big, powerful, correct horse with lots of muscle and polish. The one negative was that his sire, Johannesburg, was an unfashionable horse who was not in any way considered a likely sire of sires.
Kentucky Oaks runner-up Wonder Gadot will target the Queen’s Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, on June 30 at Woodbine, trainer Mark Casse said as he makes plans for his 3-year-olds.
Wonder Gadot dueled the length of the stretch with Monomoy Girl in the Kentucky Oaks before Monomoy Girl prevailed by a half-length, surviving a claim of foul. Casse said Wonder Gadot, who won the Mazarine Stakes at Woodbine and the Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct last year, emerged in good order.
“She is amazing. She’s bouncing around,” Casse said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bolt d’Oro is done chasing Justify for now.
Second to him in the Santa Anita Derby and then 12th in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday after being spurned on the far turn by Justify, Bolt d’Oro will return to California on Tuesday and will not run in either the Preakness or the Belmont Stakes, the next two legs of the Triple Crown, according to owner and trainer Mick Ruis.
“It’s not in his best interest,” Ruis said Sunday of continuing on the Triple Crown trail.
“Bob,” Ruis said, referring to Bob Baffert, the trainer of Justify, “has a monster.”
The Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC on Saturday posted a 9.1 overnight rating and a 21 share, according to the television network, with both figures representing significant declines from last year.
The 9.1 overnight rating was a 13 percent decline from the 10.5 rating posted last year, while the 21 share was an 8.7 percent decline from the 23 share posted last year. While the overnight rating is a numerical measure of the number of people watching a broadcast, share is a measure of the percentage of televisions in use that are tuned into a broadcast.
