Skelly looked like he was back to the best version of himself earlier this month. Hall of Fame might have more of himself still to give. And Magnitude got himself back in the breeze column last week.
All three dirt horses – a sprinter, a router, and a 3-year-old – are based at Churchill with trainer Steve Asmussen, and the first two are aimed at stakes races there.
By Brad Cox’s standards, the last two weeks have been slow, with three winners from 28 runners. On Preakness weekend at Pimlico, Cox won two, including the Black-Eyed Susan with Margie’s Intention, but back on home grounds at Churchill Downs, Cox sent out six and won none during the last racing week.
But as May pushes toward June, expect Cox to heat up in Kentucky and New York. Cox’s barn is absolutely loaded with older dirt-route horses, to the extent that Cox nominated 10 of them to the May 31 Blame Stakes, a prep for the $1 million Stephen Foster on June 28.
Witty, winner of the $125,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint on Saturday, could soon be back on the hunt for his first graded stakes victory. Still uncertain about his next start, trainer Elizabeth Merryman is considering several races after the 6-year-old gelding’s late-charging 3 1/4-length victory at Pimlico Race Course.
McAfee, runner-up to Hill Road in the Grade 3 Peter Pan at Aqueduct two weeks ago, will make his next start in the Grade 3, $500,000 Ohio Derby at Thistledown on June 21, Jake Ballis, managing partner of the group that owns majority interest in the horse, said Monday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The undefeated filly Cavalieri, a notable absentee from the nominations for Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita, will not race until the Del Mar summer meeting, according to trainer Bob Baffert.
Cavalieri, who won the Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on March 8 in her last start, has not had a published workout since mid-April.
“I’m going to wait for Del Mar,” Baffert said on Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Last May, on the Memorial Day program at Santa Anita, jockey Umberto Rispoli won two Grade 1 races on the same program for the first time in his career with Anisette in the Gamely Stakes and Johannes in the Shoemaker Mile.
The same milestone is within reach on Monday for Rispoli, who has been at the center of the racing world after his dramatic win aboard Journalism in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. The Preakness was the first American classic victory for the 36-year-old Rispoli, a native of Italy who has ridden in the United States since late 2019.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The $2 pick six at Santa Anita on Sunday begins with a carryover of $45,806.
The carryover was confirmed after the ninth race on Saturday’s 10-race program, the fifth division of the bet. An upset win by Druidic ($32.40) in the ninth race clinched the carryover.
Sunday’s pick six covers the fifth through 10th races on a program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific. The pool of new money is likely to surpass $250,000. The fifth race has a scheduled post time of 3:08 p.m.
Approximately 13 hours before the Preakness was run at Pimlico, Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty was in action at Saratoga, where he worked a half-mile in 49.75 seconds over the Oklahoma training track in preparation for the June 7 Belmont Stakes to be run at Saratoga.
According to New York Racing Association clocker David Norton, Sovereignty went in splits of 12.88 seconds, 25.02 and galloped out five furlongs in 1:04.29. Sovereignty went by himself under exercise rider Neil Poznansky.
Baeza, third in the Kentucky Derby on May 3, worked a slow half-mile in 53.60 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday in preparation for a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 7.
Ridden by Hector Berrios, Baeza had the slowest of 43 recorded works at the distance on the main track. The time was not a concern for trainer John Shirreffs.
“He was very relaxed and doing it very easily,” Shirreffs said. “He looked really nice.”
May Day Ready, the Grade 2 Jessamine winner who finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, will make her 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2, $300,000 Wonder Again Stakes at Saratoga on June 7, trainer Joe Lee said Friday.
Lee had been pointing May Day Ready to the Edgewood Stakes at Churchill on May 2, but the filly came into season and Lee could not prepare her for a race like he wanted.
May Day Ready spent the winter at Fair Grounds and then moved to Keeneland, where she remains.
