ARCADIA, Calif. – An untimely setback to the improving 3-year-old colt Newgate has knocked the Bob Baffert trainee off the Kentucky Derby trail.
Days after Newgate won the highly rated Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4 at Santa Anita, racing manager Tom Ryan announced Friday on Twitter that Newgate has been sidelined with a “minor hock issue.”
OLDSMAR, Fla. – You won’t find it anywhere on his Hall of Fame plaque, but Todd Pletcher has won the Sam F. Davis Stakes a record six times. It’s typical of the immense swath Pletcher has cut for himself in a training career made more notable by all his Eclipse Awards and higher-profile success.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Gun Pilot is being considered for a Kentucky Derby points race following his Feb. 4 allowance win at Oaklawn Park.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Wednesday that the horse is under consideration for the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel on Feb. 25 at Oaklawn.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Folks get tired of the same-old-same-old, which is one reason the Kentucky Derby result last year was so refreshing. The connections of 80-1 winner Rich Strike were unknowns in racing, their stories a welcome change.
One can imagine how Derby fans, through the years, grew weary of hearing about Colonel Bradley, then Calumet Farm and the Jones Boys, then Lukas and Zito, and now Baffert and Pletcher. People do embrace the novelty of a Derby stranger, if only as a diversion from a worn-out script.
None of the projected runners in Saturday’s $100,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields have a Triple Crown pedigree quite like the unbeaten colt Harcyn.
Owned by Jerry Moss, Harcyn is from the family of half-brothers Giacomo, the winner of the 2005 Kentucky Derby, and Tiago, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in 2007 and was seventh behind Street Sense in the Kentucky Derby.
Though he was a fast, elite 2-year-old last season, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Cave Rock is taking his own sweet time at age 3. Cave Rock is the only horse on the Derby Watch list without a race or workout in 2023. Cave Rock is galloping daily at Santa Anita, and trainer Bob Baffert said the colt is nearing his first comeback work.
“I’m not pressing him, I’m not forcing him to do anything,” Baffert said Sunday. “He’s going to start breezing in a couple weeks. There’s nothing set in stone. He’s going to let me know. I did lose two weeks during the rain. That set me back.”
Confirming what seemed all but certain when the colt didn’t post a timed workout last weekend, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday that Instant Coffee won’t run in the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 18 at Fair Grounds and will await the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 25.
Horses from the barns of Brad Cox, Todd Pletcher, and Bob Baffert make up 28 percent of the 369 horses made early nominees to this year’s Triple Crown.
The 369 nominees, which includes a record 37 horses based in Japan, represents an 18.2 percent increase from the 312 nominated last year.
