HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Thundergram will add blinkers for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby after turning in an impressive work in the equipment Saturday at Oaklawn Park. He was one of several horses tuning up for the $3.3 million Racing Festival of the South, which features nine stakes over the final week of the meet. The series closes with the Arkansas Derby on April 12.
Oaklawn’s track was rated “fast” for works Saturday on a clear, 45-degree morning.
Michael Buckley, owner of Toast of New York, the winner of the UAE Derby, told the British racing channel Racing UK on Friday that it was unlikely Toast of New York would come to the United States for the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
“No decisions have been made, but I think it’s fair enough to say I don’t think the concept of going off to Kentucky on the other side of the world and slogging around on the dirt is a fair thing to do with a horse like him,” Buckley said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said Danza is possible for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, and if the horse goes he would lift the projected field for the April 12 race at Oaklawn Park to eight. Pletcher already has Commissioner committed, joining expected starters Bayern, Conquest Titan, Ride On Curlin, Strong Mandate, Tapiture, and Thundergram.
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[bc_video_id:320295:]ARCADIA, Calif. – Art Sherman was going to be a little late to Santa Anita on Thursday morning. He had to oversee his main stable of horses down at Los Alamitos, so his son and assistant trainer, Alan, supervised the morning preparation of California Chrome here at Santa Anita in advance of his start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby.
His first priority when he got to Santa Anita was to get a haircut, “So I look halfway decent,” Sherman said.
When last seen in New York, Wicked Strong was finishing a respectable third in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct, setting him up for a potential trip down the Triple Crown trail.
But Gulfstream Park didn’t agree with Wicked Strong, who finished ninth in the Holy Bull Stakes and fourth in an allowance race, albeit beaten by Constitution, who won last Saturday’s Florida Derby.
Wicked Strong is back in New York and back at Aqueduct, where he will run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial.
Wood Memorial Day at Aqueduct is the unofficial start of spring and quality racing in New York, with the Wood and the Carter Handicap the first Grade 1 races in the Empire State since the Cigar Mile last Thanksgiving weekend. This year’s unusual 12-race all-dirt card, however, is also a bit of a Groundhog Day – a reminder that there’s still some chill in the air and that save for a four-race stretch of stakes racing, winter racing is not quite over in these parts.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With so much attention paid to the brilliantly fast Social Inclusion, it’s been easy to overlook the fact there is an undefeated multiple graded stakes winner in the field for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
“That’s okay, I don’t mind sneaking up on people,” said Rick Violette, the trainer of Samraat, who is 5 for 5 including victories in the Withers and Gotham – both Grade 3 races – over Aqueduct’s inner track.
Owners, trainers, breeders, and fans all dream of seeing a young racehorse start his career so brilliantly that his potential appears limitless. There haven’t been many such Thoroughbred stars in the United States in recent years, but an extraordinarily precocious colt has suddenly burst onto the racing scene.
Social Inclusion made his debut at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 22 and won a maiden race by 7 1/2 lengths in fast time. In his second start, he faced Honor Code, then considered a top contender for the Kentucky Derby, and ran away from him by 10 lengths, breaking a track record.
MIAMI – There are the more traditional ways to get a good 3-year-old to the Kentucky Derby in peak form – important preps like the Florida Derby, Wood Memorial, Santa Anita Derby, Louisiana Derby, Arkansas Derby, and Blue Grass Stakes – or the not-so-traditional ways, as trainer Graham Motion proved so well when using Turfway Park’s Spiral Stakes as the final stepping-stone for Animal Kingdom’s victory in the 2011 Kentucky Derby.
