OPELOUSAS, La. – If the Evangeline Downs Turf Sprint card on May 30 were a high-stakes poker game, it might be said that trainer Pat Devereux is holding the top pair. It is a hand Devereux said he could raise with.
“We’re all in,” Devereux said Monday as he prepares to send out Stormdriver in the $100,000 Evangeline Mile on the Turf Sprint undercard and Reflector in the $300,000 Turf Sprint itself. Both are already impressive stakes winners at the young meeting.
Bob Baffert won the trainers’ participation bonus at Pimlico last weekend, according to stakes coordinator Coley Blind.
To be eligible for the bonus, a trainer had to start at least five horses in designated races last Friday and Saturday. The order of finish was determined by a points system for finishing first (10 points), second (7), third (5), fourth (3), and for starting a horse (1 point).
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Palm Meadows training center will be kept open throughout the summer for the first time since the facility opened in 2002. One horseman who’s already availed himself of the opportunity to stable at the Boynton Beach location this summer is Carlo Vaccarezza, who sent out a pair of winners from Palm Meadows over the weekend at Gulfstream Park, including Little Michelle in Saturday’s Gracie Handicap.
Graham Motion is inching closer to both his 51st birthday and career win No. 2,000. The birthday, which is Friday, likely will spark the first celebration, but the second shouldn’t be far behind.
As of Wednesday morning, Motion had 1,996 North American victories. By any measure, that’s a lot of wins, but Motion has a large and powerful stable based in Fair Hill, Md., and there should be many more winners in the months and years ahead.
Jockey Taylor Hole is one win away from his 2,000th career victory.
Hole, a 43-year-old native of Salem, N.H., has scored almost 1,600 of his wins at Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park. With the closing of Suffolk, he started riding in Maryland last November, and his business has steadily improved. He went 14 for 80 at the Laurel winter-spring meet and is 8 for 78 at Pimlico.
Joe Bravo had a busy Preakness week.
On Monday, he rode at Parx Racing; on Friday, he was at Belmont Park; and on Saturday, he finished second on 25-1 shot Cage Fighter in the Grade 2 Dixie and third on Happy My Way in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint at Pimlico.
Back home at Monmouth Park on Sunday, he notched career win No. 4,999. His milestone 5,000th victory could come as early as Wednesday, when he is scheduled to ride for trainer Jason Servis in the ninth race at Belmont.
ARCADIA, Calif. – In a six-week span from mid-March to late April, the Little Red Feather racing partnership won eight races at Santa Anita with six horses.
Those runners earned a collective $388,280. In the next month, they could collect even more.
The six winners – Bobby Z Man, Chati’s On Top, Chaulk o Lattey, Midnight Storm, Rocko’s Wheel, and Sheer Pleasure – are all scheduled to race between Thursday and June 13. Four of them are bound for stakes, including three in six-figure races for California-breds at Santa Anita on Saturday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan has done well over the past few weeks in his recovery from a fracture to his right ankle, trainer Charlie LoPresti said Sunday at Churchill Downs. Wise Dan is under light training to harden the bone in the area surrounding the injury, which was incurred last fall.
Wise Dan, based at Keeneland, “probably spends three hours each day out of his stall,” LoPresti said.
LoPresti said Wise Dan alternates between jogging and tack walking each day and stands on a vibration plate to stimulate blood flow.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Saturday’s Grade 3 Louisville Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on turf is shaping up light, with Majestic Harbor, predominantly a dirt runner, the possible starting highweight at 116 pounds. Others being considered for the race are Calvados (115), Golden Soul (115), Cozy Kitten (114), For Greater Glory (114), Xtra Luck (114), and Russellin (113).
The light weight assignments will assure a number of overweights. Very few of the leading riders at Churchill Downs can tack less than 116 pounds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Unlike Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah, who is bidding to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years in the Belmont Stakes on June 6, the Kentucky Oaks winner won’t be running in New York anytime soon. Oaks winner Lovely Maria and stablemate I’m a Chatterbox, who ran third in the Oaks, likely won’t make an appearance in New York until Saratoga, trainer Larry Jones said.
After what Jones thought was a hard spring for the two fillies, they are in light training at Delaware Park. Neither has had an extended break from racing.
