LOUISVILLE, Ky. – American Pharoah will be paraded before his adoring public before and after the sixth race Saturday night at Churchill Downs, giving fans a window of maybe 40 minutes to take another long look at the latest Triple Crown winner.
American Pharoah will be walked over from Barn 33 following the fifth of 11 Downs After Dark races, which is set for 7:57 p.m. Eastern, along with the runners in the sixth race.
Richard Klein, whose family bred and owns the stakes-winning turf sprinter Good Deed, announced Tuesday that the 6-year-old mare is being retired because of a knee problem.
Good Deed won 9 of 19 starts and earned $385,353. As a 4-year-old, she earned a 110 Beyer Speed Figure in winning a five-furlong allowance on the Churchill turf. She won five stakes before ending her career with back-to-back fourth-place finishes, including when she was favored against male rivals in the Grade 3 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Kentucky Derby Day.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Phil Bauer could not have picked a much better setting to win his first race of the year. Bauer is the trainer of Channel Marker, a 6-year-old gelding who rallied for a 10-1 upset in the Grade 3 Jaipur on the Belmont Stakes undercard last Saturday.
“Things had started to weigh on me a little bit,” said Bauer.
OPELOUSAS, La. – Thiscatcanjam emerged in good order from her splashy stakes debut in last Saturday’s Acadiana Stakes, and her connections are eyeing Louisiana Legends Night on July 4 for her next start. The 3-year-old daughter of Big Top Cat ran her career record to three wins from four starts by making short work of eight other Louisiana-bred fillies in the seven-furlong Acadiana, kicking clear by 3 1/2 lengths.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The $400,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita on Saturday is expected to have a field of five, all stakes winners.
Four locally based runners – Bal a Bali, Midnight Storm, Talco, and Winning Prize – will be challenged by the New York shipper Seek Again, trained by Bill Mott.
The Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31, provided the winner is nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Lea, the likely favorite for the Stephen Foster Handicap, arrived Sunday at Churchill Downs on the same air charter that transported Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and already has settled into a routine for Bill Mott assistant Kenny McCarthy.
“He jogged a mile and galloped a mile this morning, just like he did yesterday,” McCarthy said Tuesday. “He had his last breeze for the race before he left Saratoga.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Triple Crown winner American Pharoah probably will return to light training Friday at Churchill Downs as his connections prepare to have him paraded in front of what surely will be a large and jubilant crowd Saturday night during the Stephen Foster Handicap program.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita’s spring-summer meeting has shown a 9 percent increase in attendance over last year, a track official said. There is hope that that figure could rise further before the meeting ends June 28 with the interest created by American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win last Saturday.
Nate Newby, Santa Anita’s marketing director, said on Sunday that the track is planning promotions centering on American Pharoah. An American Pharoah poster giveaway is planned for Saturday. Santa Anita is hoping to parade American Pharoah on June 27, the day of the $500,000 Gold Cup.
Danzatrice lost her left front shoe and grabbed herself during last Saturday’s Grade 1 Acorn but came out of her fourth-place finish in good shape, according to Parx-based trainer Cathal Lynch.
Danzatrice tracked the early pace three wide in the one-mile Acorn, dropped back a bit on the far turn, then rallied to finish fourth.
Trevor McCarthy, who missed most of the winter meet at Laurel Park with a broken wrist, won the Pimlico riding title with 35 wins, one more than Victor Carrasco and two more than Jevian Toledo.
McCarthy won the title despite having fewer Pimlico mounts than Carrasco or Toledo, as he has spent most Saturdays and Sundays at Monmouth Park, where he is second in the standings to Paco Lopez with 13 wins.
Jamie Ness won the Pimlico training title with 25 victories, four more than runner-up Kieron Magee. Hamilton Smith was third in the standings with 13 wins.
