Quinzieme Monarque, fourth to Rydilluc in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream on March 3, will switch to dirt for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 6, trainer Tom Albertrani said.
Quinzieme Monarque, a son of Rock Hard Ten, is winless in two dirt tries, finishing fourth in an off-the-turf maiden race last summer at Saratoga and fourth, beaten 17 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 2 Remsen here last November.
“He may prefer the turf, but we’ll take a shot and see what happens,” Albertrani said.
The Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on Sunday takes place in the American Southwest, so it could be a shootout, and since the track is in New Mexico, hard by El Paso, Texas, it could be a border war. But, really, it’s nothing more than a schoolyard brawl.
You see, Joel Marr, who trains local hero Dry Summer, and Todd Pletcher, who is bringing in Abraham, went to school together nearly 40 years ago at nearby Zach White Elementary School, a little more than two miles from the track.
Who beat up whom on the playground?
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Carl Nafzger has already won two Kentucky Derbies, with Unbridled and Street Sense, but at the moment he’s in no hurry to try for a third with his latest 3-year-old prospect Looking Cool.
Looking Cool qualified for a possible shot at a Derby prep after rallying to defeat the odds-on River Rocks by a half-length under entry-level allowance conditions going 1 1/16 miles here at Gulfstream Park last Sunday. The win was the second in the last three starts for Looking Cool, who earned a career-best 86 Beyer Speed Figure for his effort.
Carve is to make his next start at Oaklawn Park on April 13, in one of two stakes, trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday. He said the horse is to run in either the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby or the $100,000 Northern Spur.
Carve won the first two starts of his career at Oaklawn, then ran sixth in the track’s Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel last Saturday. He trailed for much of the race before putting in a strong stretch bid.
“He left himself too much to do,” Asmussen said. “He made up quite a bit of ground.”
Led by trainer Bob Baffert's duo of Shakin It Up and Govenor Charlie, as well as local hero Dry Summer, a field of nine was entered on Wednesday for the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby at Sunland Park on Sunday.
The field, from the rail out, is Just Win Baby (Alonzo Quinonez the rider), Abraham (John Velazquez), Stormdriver (Ry Eikleberry), Shakin It Up (David Flores), Saint Prado (Rafael Bejarano), Dry Summer (Carlos Madeira), Govenor Charlie (Martin Garcia), Mudflats (Edwin Maldonado), and Show Some Magic (Luis Contreras).
CINCINNATI - A full field of 12 3-year-olds was drawn today at the new Horseshoe Casino in downtown Cincinnati for the annual showcase event set for Saturday at nearby Turfway Park, with Uncaptured being listed as a lukewarm 3-1 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile Polytrack race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Six new horses are in the lineup of 23 separately listed wagering interests and Verrazano is a lukewarm morning-line favorite in Pool 3 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens its customary three-day run Friday at noon Eastern.
Churchill Downs linemaker Mike Battaglia has listed Verrazano as the 7-2 choice for Pool 3, with the mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, next at 6-1.
With the defection of Titletown Five, there are now nine horses considered probable for the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on Sunday. Sunland Park officials said Shakin It Up, winner of the Grade 2 San Vicente, and Govenor Charlie, an impressive maiden special weight winner at Santa Anita, are both expected for trainer Bob Baffert.
Chad Brown long ago circled the Palm Beach Stakes as the starting point for Balance the Books this year. But when the colt came down with a temperature a couple of weeks before that March 3 grass race at Gulfstream Park, “we had to go to Plan B,” Brown said this week from his winter headquarters at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida.
