Booth and jockey Erik Asmussen have formed a special bond, and the young guns will be in action Saturday at Churchill Downs in pursuit of their fifth consecutive stakes win together in the Grade 3, $250,000 Kelly’s Landing.
Asmussen will be traveling in from his Lone Star Park base to reunite with his signature mount – and one of his best equine friends. The pair last teamed up on May 17 at Pimlico, where they won the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint.
Jockey Francisco Arrieta, who won the riding title at Oaklawn Park, is scheduled to ride this summer at Colonial Downs, according to his agent, Cody Autrey.
The Colonial meet runs from July 9 through Sept. 13. Before the start of Colonial, Arrieta has mounts Friday and Saturday at Lone Star and stakes engagements July 4-5 at Prairie Meadows.
Last Friday at Los Alamitos, jockey David Cohen returned from a two-month layoff to win a $12,500 claimer for maidens on Angi’s Typsy.
Cohen had not ridden since April 20 at Hawthorne, the same day Angi’s Typsy had her last start.
“I saw that, and thought, 'huh,' ” Cohen said of the coincidence. “It might be meant to be.”
Trainer Doug O’Neill has been suspended seven days and fined $2,500 for violating rules pertaining to veterinary exams prior to a workout.
O’Neill was cited for failing to have Ivan the Great inspected before a workout at Santa Anita on April 20. According to a ruling published by Los Alamitos stewards on Sunday, Ivan the Great did not have a vet exam in the 90 days prior to the workout.
It’s not that the Chicago Stakes on Saturday night at Churchill Downs was a make-or-break race for the 5-year-old mare Vahva. Or was it? Vahva had not won since the 2024 Chicago, ran flat in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and in her first start since that race finished seventh, beaten more than a dozen lengths, in the Derby City Distaff on Derby Day. Granted, the Derby City Distaff featured an absolutely stellar field and was contested over a sloppy track, but Vahva still had something to prove in the Chicago – and she proved it.
The last weeks of June will be a quiet period for Journalism, winner of the Preakness Stakes who was second in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes this spring.
Journalism has been galloping on a daily basis at Santa Anita since his second-place finish to Sovereignty in the Belmont Stakes on June 7 at Saratoga, trainer Michael McCarthy said Sunday.
McCarthy stressed that he and the partnership that own Journalism have not determined race plans for the colt.
“He’s enjoying himself and we’ll figure it out soon,” McCarthy said. “Right now, I don’t know.
Last summer, Johannes won the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes in the third start of a six-race campaign that featured five stakes wins and a game second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar.
This summer, the $250,000 Read Stakes is tentatively scheduled to be the first start of the year for Johannes, trainer Tim Yakteen said over the weekend.
“We won’t make any commitments until we get closer to the race, but the Eddie Read is in our backyard and a logical spot,” Yakteen said. “He’s doing well.”
The success of the ongoing Los Alamitos summer meeting may depend on participation from runners that raced in Northern California last year.
The three-week meeting began on Friday and continues through July 6. This is the first Los Alamitos daytime Thoroughbred meeting since racing ceased in Northern California last December. A fall meeting at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton had poor business figures, leading to the cancellation of a proposed winter-spring meeting.
Led by the Grade 2 winners Dr. Venkman and Mi Hermano Ramon, California trainer Mark Glatt plans to send four prominent runners to Churchill Downs for stakes on June 28.
Dr. Venkman is booked to start in the Grade 3 Kelly’s Landing Stakes, a $250,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs. A 5-year-old gelding, Dr. Venkman was second by 5 1/2 lengths to the exciting colt Nysos in his first start of 2025 in the Grade 3 Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on May 31. Last July, Dr. Venkman won the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar.
