DEL MAR, Calif. – Kitten’s Roar never had been in California until earlier this month, but she so took to the Del Mar turf that she is making a return visit just three weeks later to try to put bookends on a spectacular month here.
Kitten’s Roar won the Grade 2 Goldikova on the Breeders’ Cup undercard Nov. 4, and her trainer, Mike Maker, on Sunday said Kitten’s Roar would return to California for the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes on closing day this Sunday.
The third race at Laurel Park on Sunday was declared a 'no contest' following a one-horse spill nearing the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile race.
Leather Goods, with Alex Cintron aboard, appeared to clip heels and fell going to the first turn. With horse and rider still down on the track, the riders of the other six horses in the field eased their mounts in the final furlong while track outriders waved them to the outer part of the stretch.
Danny Pish, who is coming off the training title at Retama Park, said he will have a division of 15 horses at the Oaklawn meet, which starts racing in January and opens for training Monday. It’s been more than five years since he’s had horses stabled at the Hot Springs, Ark., track, and felt it was time to return.
“It’s about as strong as racing as there is in the winter in the country, and I’d been looking at it,” Pish said.
Pish also has divisions at Delta, Fair Grounds, Remington, and Sam Houston.
Trainer Robertino Diodoro will be returning to Oaklawn.
Chief Know It All has left his new connections on the edge of their seats in his last two starts, having captured a pair of derbies in Canada by slim margins. He’ll attempt to make it three such wins in a row Wednesday in the $200,000 Zia Park Derby.
American Dubai, a multiple stakes winner, was expected for the Zia Park Championship but instead is getting some time off, trainer Rodney Richards said. American Dubai last raced Sept. 24, finishing third to probable Championship favorite Iron Fist in the $175,000 Governor’s Cup at Remington.
“We’re wrapped up for the year,” Richards said. “I think you’ll probably see him back at Sunland.”
American Dubai won four consecutive races last meet at Sunland, including the $150,000 Sunland Park Handicap. He races for Richard Keith.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Divisidero, the millionaire turf specialist owned by the Gunpowder Farms of Tom Keithley, has been turned out for an unspecified period but will rejoin trainer Buff Bradley’s stable at Fair Grounds over the winter to prepare for a 2018 campaign as a 6-year-old.
Keithley said the main goals for Divisidero will be two races at Churchill: the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic in May and the Breeders’ Cup Mile in November.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Diversify and Hoppertunity have been confirmed as starters for the Clark Handicap, giving the Grade 1 race an East vs. West component to mix in with a solid cast of locals.
Entries for the $500,000 Clark, to be run next Friday for the 143rd time at Churchill Downs, will be taken Sunday, one day after weight assignments were to be released. The Clark is one of six graded stakes to be run here Thanksgiving weekend.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Top of the Game, who returned from an eight-month layoff to score a runaway victory in the Comma to the Top Stakes last month over Hoppertunity, heads the likely field for the Grade 3, $100,000 Native Diver Stakes on Nov. 25.
The Native Diver, at 1 1/16 miles, is the lone dirt stakes of the eight stakes to be run the final week of the Del Mar meet, and could have the smallest field, with Seattle Serenade and just a handful of others likely to run.
DEL MAR, Calif. – So many trainers are eager to run 2-year-olds on the grass at Del Mar that both graded turf stakes for juveniles during the final week of the meet should have bulky fields.
Raucous, winner of the Chelsey Flower at Aqueduct in her last start, is expected to ship in and head the field of fillies in the Grade 3, $100,000 Jimmy Durante at one mile Nov. 25. Flavien Prat has the call on Raucous, who is trained by Christopher Clement.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Toward the end of regular training hours Thursday at San Luis Rey Downs, Stormy Liberal, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, stepped onto the track and worked. It would have been unexceptional, except for one thing: the direction in which he traveled.
Stormy Liberal went a half-mile turning to the right – going clockwise – the opposite of how races are run here, but in preparation for what is next for him: a trip to Hong Kong for a 1,200-meter (about six-furlong) race at Sha Tin, where the one turn is to the right. The drill was timed in 49.20 seconds.
