HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mike Maker is commonly referred to as the king of the Claiming Crown. But this year, there is a new sheriff in town.
Maker, who has won more races – 16 – than any other trainer in Claiming Crown history, will be overshadowed in Saturday’s 20th renewal by Jorge Navarro, who entered 16 horses in the nine Claiming Crown races on the opening-day program of the 2018-19 Gulfstream Championship meet.
Carrick was halfway through the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Sept. 29 when trainer Tom Morley saw alarming signals. Carrick, 3, was struggling on the soft turf.
“We could see it on the backstretch,” Morley recalled on Wednesday. “He was not handling the ground.”
Carrick finished 27 1/2 lengths behind winner Channel Maker in the Joe Hirsch, his debut against older horses. That loss ended any thoughts of starting Carrick in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.
It’s been a good start to the Fair Grounds meet for trainer Hugh Robertson. Wynn Time made a successful return to the races, winning the Thanksgiving Handicap, and on Sunday the 2-year-old filly Smila’ssenseofsnow ran her record to 2 for 2 with a 1 1/2-length first-level allowance victory.
Almost everything went right for trainer Al Stall in the early stages of the last two Fair Grounds meetings.
From the Nov. 18 start of the 2016-17 meet through Dec. 15, 2016, Stall’s record at Fair Grounds was 20-7-3-1. During the same period last year, his stable really crushed it, going 38-11-9-2. So far this season? Twenty-one starts, zero winners, eight seconds, and three thirds.
Almost everything has been going wrong: Poor post positions and poor starts have produced more failures in New Orleans than have strictly poor performances.
James Graham is a longshot to be leading rider at Fair Grounds when the calendar hits March 24, 2019, closing day of the Fair Grounds meet. But Dec. 1, 2018? That’s a different story.
Graham came into week 3 of the 2018-19 Fair Grounds season with a fine record of 12-14-10 from 51 mounts. Only two jockeys – Colby Hernandez with 54 mounts, Mitchell Murrill with 57 – have ridden more races at the meet, and no one has ridden more winners. Murrill, through racing on Nov. 25, had 10 winners.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The Grade 1 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 8 at Los Alamitos will be headed by the unbeaten Improbable, who worked seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Tuesday in 1:27 in his penultimate drill for the race.
Improbable is one of two horses trainer Bob Baffert said he will run in the Futurity. He also intends to start Mucho Gusto, winner of the Bob Hope at Del Mar on Nov. 17.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer swept last Sunday’s stakes at Del Mar with Battle of Midway in the Native Diver and Flying Scotsman in the Cecil B. DeMille, and now he’ll be taking aim at some of the biggest prizes left on the circuit this year, including the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes on closing day here Sunday with Vasilika.
“It’s a tough race, but we’ve got a tough horse,” Hollendorfer said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Marley’s Freedom, the Grade 1 Ballerina winner who finished fourth as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, was confirmed to run in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap at Aqueduct by trainer Bob Baffert.
Marley’s Freedom completed her preparations for the Go for Wand by working five furlongs in 1:00.40 Monday morning at Santa Anita.
“She went nice,” Baffert said. “She’s been training really well. I was really disappointed in the Breeders’ Cup. She didn’t bring her ‘A’ game.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown will have runners in three of the four graded stakes scheduled at Aqueduct on Saturday. They will be led by Patternrecognition and Timeline in the $750,000 Cigar Mile, the last Grade 1 stakes on the New York Racing Association circuit in 2018.
Patternrecognition and Timeline are two of what could be 11 horses in the Cigar field, which is expected to include the globetrotting 3-year-old Mendelssohn.
