HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Chris Rohrbach may eventually find that this game is not that easy. But it sure seemed that way after Rohrbach won with the first horse he saddled, Sylviasgivenangel, here May 3.
Rohrbach claimed Sylviasgivenangel for $6,250 in his own name April 11. He wasted little time putting the 4-year-old filly back in the entries, switching her to turf against $12,500 claimers three weeks later, and he was rewarded with a 2 1/4-length victory.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Warren’s Veneda, third as a heavy favorite in the Grade 1 Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita on May 9, has resumed training and could start in the $1 million Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 6.
Warren’s Veneda won three consecutive stakes for fillies and mares on dirt from January to mid-March, including the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational in March, before losing the four-runner Vanity Stakes by a length and a head as the 1-9 favorite.
Trainer Craig Lewis said that Warren’s Veneda passed medical tests conducted in the days after the loss.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Big Macher, the former maiden claimer who won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar last summer, will have his next start in the $827,715 Diamond Jubilee Stakes for turf sprinters at Royal Ascot in England on June 20.
Earlier this week, Big Macher was sent from California trainer Richard Baltas to Wesley Ward in Kentucky. Ward is preparing a team of runners for the five-day Royal Ascot meeting from June 16-20, leading owners Tom Mansor and Brendan Bakir to temporarily switch trainers.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hall of Fame jockey Randy Romero, troubled by a number of physical ailments during and after his riding career, is facing more health problems. On Wednesday, during medical tests required to be placed on a waiting list for a liver and kidney transplant, doctors found a tumor in his stomach.
“It’s as big as a marble, and I’m going to have surgery soon,” he said Friday. “They are going to try to laser or go in and dig it out. They don’t know if it is cancerous or not. But if it’s cancerous, I’m going to be off the list. I’m going to be in trouble.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Malcolm Pierce will be well represented in both stakes next weekend at Woodbine, with Deceptive Vision and Overheard in the Nassau and Don’t Leave Me in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes next Sunday, May 24.
Don’t Leave Me returned from a six-month layoff to capture the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks on March 21 at Turfway Park.
Frosted, the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, worked a half-mile in 47.80 seconds Friday morning over the Belmont Park main track.
Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Vesce caught Frosted’s first quarter in 24.40 seconds, his final quarter in 23.40 seconds and caught him galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.80.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said that Frosted is under serious consideration for the June 6 Belmont Stakes.
“He worked great, on his own, galloped out well,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll do it again next Friday, weather permitting.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Deceptive Vision, the winner of the Grade 3 Doubledogdare Stakes on dirt at Keeneland in her first start of the year April 17, is on target for a return to turf in the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes at Woodbine next Saturday, trainer Malcolm Pierce said.
Pierce said Deceptive Vision has come out of the Doubledogdare Stakes well and has been training forwardly ahead of the Nassau.
“She’s good,” he said. “She had a very good work on the training track [May 9]. She deserves a chance at this race.”
BALTIMORE – Pimlico is guaranteeing the size of four multi-race pools on Saturday.
The early pick four on races 2-5 will be guaranteed at $300,000. The late pick four on races 10-13, which will include the Preakness, is guaranteed to reach $1.5 million.
The 12-percent-takeout pick five on races 9-13 will have a guaranteed pool of $500,000.
A single winner of the Rainbow 6 on races 8-13 will be guaranteed a payout of at least $100,000.
BALTIMORE – Six trainers are eligible for the $100,000 trainers’ participation bonus that has been tied to the Friday and Saturday stakes and starter races at Pimlico.
According to track officials, they are Bob Baffert, Claudio Gonzalez, D. Wayne Lukas, Shug McGaughey, Graham Motion, and Todd Pletcher.
To be eligible for the bonus, a trainer has to run five horses in designated stakes or starter races at Pimlico this weekend.
