Trainer John Brocklebank and his wife, Tarilynne, who holds an owner’s license, have been suspended after a Los Angeles Superior Court ordered them to pay a combined $385,558 in damages to owner Barbara Black involving the 2012 sale of the then-unraced filly Provenance.
The suspensions were announced in two rulings issued by Del Mar stewards on Saturday. Later that day, Brocklebank said he may have to declare bankruptcy.
“I can’t pay $385,000, and neither can Tari,” he said.
After five starts on turf, Pacific Wind ran on dirt for the first time Oct. 21, winning an optional claimer at Santa Anita. The 3-year-old filly will not go back to turf anytime soon.
Sunday at Los Alamitos, Pacific Wind will start in the Grade 2 Bayakoa Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The $200,000 Bayakoa will be Pacific Wind’s first start in a stakes against older fillies and mares.
Pacific Wind closed from fifth in the optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles to win by 1 3/4 lengths. That victory gave trainer Peter Eurton the confidence to start Pacific Wind in the Bayakoa.
The decision to run the Grade 2 Bayakoa Stakes on Sunday at Los Alamitos has resulted in less purse money for overnight races for the entire three-week meeting, which begins Thursday and runs through Dec. 17.
The Bayakoa was in danger of not being run this year, but track officials and the Thoroughbred Owners of California agreed to hold the $200,000 race for fillies and mares at the winter meeting. To finance the Bayakoa, purses for some overnight races were reduced from the track’s winter meeting last December.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It may be well into 2018 before the exciting turf filly Daddy Is a Legend has her first start at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
Daddy Is a Legend won her stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar, closing seven lengths in the final quarter-mile to win by a length under jockey Joe Bravo.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Prime Attraction, the winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar, will stay on dirt this winter and may even start in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January, trainer Jim Cassidy said on Sunday.
Cassidy said owner Deron Pearson mentioned the Pegasus World Cup as a possibility, although the $1 million nomination fee is a concern, he said. Cassidy said Pearson likely would seek a financial partner if the race is chosen.
“He would like to see someone dropping out that would partner up,” Cassidy said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - On the list of places to stop on the way from New York to Southern California, south Florida would have to rank among the least convenient. But when it comes to trying to win a Grade 1 race, convenience takes a backseat to business.
So, bright and early Saturday morning, Javier Castellano found himself at Gulfstream Park West, where he worked Sharp Azteca six furlongs in 1:13 in preparation for next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. Castellano, who rode at Aqueduct on Friday, flew to south Florida Friday night.
It’s all Stall, all the time so far this Fair Grounds meet. Trainer Al Stall had five winners and two seconds from his first nine runners over two racing days, and he has the morning-line 6-5 favorite, Forevamo, in the featured fifth race Sunday.
Forevamo is one of six entrants in a second-level allowance race carded for six furlongs on dirt and also open to $40,000 claimers. He races for the first time since May 6, when Forevamo was last of 14 in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs, and for the first time since being gelded.
If Yockey’s Warrior ran only in the Thanksgiving Handicap he might be a champion.
Yockey’s Warrior won the 2016 Thanksgiving Handicap by more than two lengths and earned a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure. Thursday, Yockey’s Warrior won the 2017 Thanksgiving Handicap by five lengths, running six furlongs in 1:09.60 and earning a 101 Beyer, the second-highest figure of his career.
“If the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill was in four weeks, you’d maybe say he belongs off that race,” said trainer Al Stall, who also owns Yockey’s Warrior in a partnership.
He was still wearing his Breeders’ Cup Classic morning training saddle towel on the track at 6:30 a.m. last Friday at Fair Grounds, but by now Gun Runner’s connections have earned the right to train him in a Hawaiian grass skirt if they so choose.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Gotham Stakes for 3-year-olds will revert to a one-turn mile next year and is one of 18 stakes that had its distance adjusted for 2018 as the New York Racing Association released its stakes schedules for Aqueduct’s winter and spring seasons.
