Churchill Downs
Weather: Cloudy
Track: Good/fast
Temp: 56
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The effects of even more rain falling over the local area Thursday night and into Friday led to a racetrack that started out as sloppy but improved steadily once the clouds finally gave way to clearer skies as Friday morning progressed at Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – On a crucial Friday morning of Kentucky Derby training, jockey Martin Garcia was a key member of trainer Bob Baffert’s team at Santa Anita.
In a little more than an hour, Garcia served as exercise rider for two of Baffert’s leading hopes for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 4. At 6:30, Roadster, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 6, worked six furlongs in 1:13.80. At 7:45, Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old male of 2018 who was second in the Santa Anita Derby, worked seven furlongs in 1:27.
Jockey Jon Court is going to have to reward his mother a pretty penny if Long Range Toddy wins the $3 million Kentucky Derby next Saturday.
Court, 58, is the oldest rider ever to have a mount in the 145-year-old classic, eclipsing the record of 57 set by jockey Bobby Baird in 1978, according to Churchill Downs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Following her sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 14 at Oaklawn Park, 2018 Canadian Horse of the Year Wonder Gadot will be making her way to Woodbine, trainer Mark Casse said.
“I want to get her back winning,” he said. “We tried something in the last race, and it didn’t work. We put her on the lead, and I don’t think that’s really what she wants to do. She’s coming home to regroup.”
Churchill Downs
Weather: Cloudy
Temperature: 61
Tracks: Muddy
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The weather was the story, both locally and around the country, when it came to training hours on Thursday for horses preparing to compete here next week in the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With final pre-race workouts and new arrivals for the 145th Kentucky Derby still to come, things were inordinately quiet Thursday morning in the Churchill Downs stable area.
“It’ll pick up soon, right?” Jimmy Barnes, the longtime Bob Baffert assistant, asked rhetorically.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer John Terranova was hoping to run Heavenly Score in the $125,000 License Fee Stakes and Broadway Run in a second-level allowance on Sunday at Belmont Park. But Heavenly Score got injured, and the allowance didn’t fill, so Broadway Run will represent Terranova and Curragh Stables in the License Fee, a six-furlong turf stakes for fillies and mares.
Broadway Run was one of seven entered in the License Fee. She will be making her first start since losing by a neck in a dirt stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in December.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In addition to working Kentucky Derby contender Tax on Thursday, trainer Danny Gargan sent out Divine Miss Grey for a half-mile work in 48.72 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.
Divine Miss Grey on Sunday will accompany Tax to Churchill Downs, where she is expected to run in the Grade 1 La Troienne on May 3.
“She looks like she’s galloping when she breezes; she goes 48 and change with her head bowed,” Gargan said. “She’s a good work horse, and she’s doing really good.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Kentucky Derby, no news is bad news as far as trainer Mark Hennig is concerned.
Hennig is the trainer of Bourbon War, who would need four defections to make it into the body of the Kentucky Derby field.
If the Derby isn’t the next race, the Peter Pan at Belmont Park on May 11 or the Preakness at Pimlico on May 18 most likely will be, and on Thursday, Hennig sent out Bourbon War for a half-mile workout in 48.52 seconds over the Belmont main track.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Due largely to revenues from the slots-like historical racing machines at the nearby Derby City Gaming facility owned by Churchill Downs Inc., purses at the 38-day Churchill spring meet will be at record levels.
