HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jinks Fires first showed up at Oaklawn in 1959. David Vance came along in 1962. Don Von Hemel set up shop in 1975, and D. Wayne Lukas sent a division to town for the first time in 1984.
The men are the stalwarts of the local training colony, respected as much for their accomplishments and horsemanship as their longevity in a demanding profession. They carry on when many from their generation have retired. For them, training is not just a career, it’s a passion.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It’s impossible not see to see the emotion in Kendrick Carmouche’s eyes when he talks about his friend Jose Luis Flores, the jockey who died last month as the result of injuries sustained in a spill at Parx.
Flores was one of the first people Carmouche met when he left Louisiana to begin riding at Parx several years ago. Two weeks before Flores died, Carmouche was at Parx and the two were in the jockeys’ room when Flores told him that once he reached 5,000 career wins he was going to retire. Flores had 4,650 wins.
Bobby Flay, the celebrity chef and horse owner, has resigned his seat on the board of directors of the New York Racing Association and will be replaced by Ogden Phipps II, the son of a former NYRA chairman, the late Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, NYRA said on Friday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Nobody was better prepared for the opening of Keeneland than Bret Calhoun – unless it was True Saint, whom Calhoun saddled to win the first race of the 16-day spring meet under cloudy skies Friday.
“He came to me the first of December, broke and already turned out,” Calhoun said after True Saint, ridden by Corey Lanerie, won the 4 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds by 1 1/4 lengths. “We’ve had him at the Evangeline training center ever since. We’ve been looking forward to coming back to Kentucky, and this was a nice way to get us started on the spring.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Friday was a busy morning for trainer Todd Pletcher at his winter home at the Palm Beach Downs training center, starting just before dawn with the first of three full sets of workers that included one of his three Kentucky Derby hopefuls, Louisiana Derby winner Noble Indy.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The last two Grade 1 races of the meet will be run over the turf here next week, and each is shaping up worthy of its ranking.
The $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile, to be run Friday, is expected to get a sizable field that will include World Approval, Heart to Heart, Hogy, and possibly Om.
:: KEENELAND CLOCKER REPORT: Get workout grades and comments for the spring meet
LEXINGTON, Ky. – By itself, the sixth race at Keeneland Sunday would serve as an alluring feature, but it’s overshadowed by the Grade 2 Appalachian and Grade 3 Beaumont. Nonetheless, the $82,000 turf allowance with wide-open conditions could be a key race toward more high-profile events, given the oversubscribed field is composed almost entirely of stakes winners, and many of those graded winners.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shivermetimbers has not won since November, but has kept pretty good company in recent months. Shivermetimbers was fourth behind McKinzie in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes in January, seventh behind Lombo in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes in February, and second to the highly regarded Justify in an optional claimer March 11.
There will be no trip to the Kentucky Derby for Shivermetimbers, but an appearance in an optional claimer for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita on Sunday could lead to a start in a graded stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. – My Boy Jack, third in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds on March 24, is expected to start in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday in an effort to secure sufficient qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby.
Through Friday, My Boy Jack had 32 qualifying points and was 17th on the list of potential Kentucky Derby runners. The Kentucky Derby, scheduled for May 5 at Churchill Downs, has a limit of 20 starters.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Fields for Oaklawn’s annual Racing Festival of the South stakes races are beginning to take shape, with Magnum Moon anticipated to run in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby and champion Unique Bella expected for the Grade 1, $700,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.
The Festival comprises seven stakes worth a total of $3.5 million, with the races run over the final three dates of the meet: Thursday through Saturday. It’s the annual grand finale to the Oaklawn season in a concept hatched by the late Charles Cella in 1974.
