The Ohio-bred champions of 2024 were recently named, with Generous Lover emerging as horse of the year and champion female. She won three stakes in the Buckeye State on the season, including the Best of Ohio Distaff.
Who Dey, winner of the Best of Ohio Endurance, was honored as the state’s champion male runner. That was his only stakes win of the year, but he did place in three open-company stakes in Kentucky, including a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Matt Winn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna breezed five furlongs in 1:01 on Monday morning at Oaklawn Park as she continues preparations for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap.
The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares is April 12 at Oaklawn.
Thorpedo Anna came out in the first set, on a crisp morning in the mid-50s. She backtracked to the sixteenth pole and worked by herself. The track was rated fast.
Bourbon Memory remained unbeaten by winning Saturday’s closing-night feature at Turfway Park, the $125,000 Serena’s Song Stakes for 3-year-old fillies sprinting. In the process, she emerged as the winningest horse of the Florence track’s roughly four-month stand.
The stable areas at Churchill Downs and Keeneland are about to get crowded. With the final round of major preps for the spring classics underway and southern tracks wrapping up their seasons, various trainers will begin setting up a spring base of operations – including Kentucky Derby candidates lining up their final preparations for the classic.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It was a busy Saturday for Kentucky Derby candidates at Santa Anita.
Journalism and Citizen Bull posted final drills for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5, while Rodriguez looked super and is expected to run the same day in either the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland or Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
Baeza, the well-bred maiden winner, also worked Saturday as the Santa Anita Derby field takes shape. Five of the eight nominees are likely to run including Barnes, whose final workout is scheduled for Monday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The redemption road, and, potentially, the road to the roses runs back to Keeneland for East Avenue. On Saturday morning, the colt, a Grade 1 winner at this track, turned in his final piece of work for next Saturday's Grade 1, $1.25 million Blue Grass Stakes, breezing a half-mile in 47 seconds flat.
Trainer Tim Bellasis is running two-thirds of his stable at Santa Anita on Saturday and Sunday.
The team numbers only three horses and by the end of the weekend Bellasis may be down to two horses after Union Wave runs in the fifth race on Saturday, and Acero starts in Sunday’s fourth race. Both race in $5,000 claimers.
The claiming crowd has their eyes on one, he said.
“I hear I might lose one of them,” he said on Friday. “That’s what I’ve been told.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Dale Romans may not leave South Florida with a Kentucky Derby horse, but in Sorcerer’s Silver it does appear he has a nice 3-year-old for shorter races in the division.
On Thursday, Sorcerer’s Silver won a first-level allowance race, restricted to Florida-breds, by seven lengths. He ran six furlongs in 1:09.29 and earned an 89 Beyer Speed Figure. That followed a debut win against Florida-breds by 8 1/4 lengths, a race in which he earned an 84 Beyer.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After briefly flirting with a trip to Dubai, the connections of Integration, runner-up in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream on Jan. 25, have decided to remain stateside and point toward the Grade 1, $650,000 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland on April 11 – weather permitting.
Last year, Integration finished third in the Maker’s Mark Mile, a race run over yielding turf.
“He was third on a track he hated,” trainer Shug McGaughey said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There’s never a good time for a jockey to get injured, but the broken left ankle suffered by Tyler Gaffalione earlier this week at Gulfstream Park seemingly couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Gaffalione was scheduled to meet with doctors on Friday to discuss a plan of action on how to deal with the injury. Before that meeting took place, Matt Muzikar, Gaffalione’s agent, said he believes his rider will miss two months.
