OLDSMAR, Fla. – The 2014-15 meeting at Tampa Bay Downs is winding down, and there’s still lots of interest in the trainers’ and jockeys’ standings, but for altogether different reasons.
Jamie Ness and Gerald Bennett are still battling it out to be leading trainer, while jockey Antonio Gallardo’s biggest challenge is the calendar, as he tries to break the track’s single-season record for wins. After the upcoming four-day race week, the meet has only a single card, June 30.
Jockey Victor Espinoza, who is booked to ride favored American Pharoah in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, has dropped an appeal of a three-day suspension for causing interference earlier this year.
Espinoza was cited on March 7 for his ride on Hauler in the sixth race at Santa Anita on March 6. Hauler finished seventh in a maiden race on the hillside turf course. There was no disqualification.
Espinoza’s reassigned suspension dates are May 8 through 10.
Verraco, who finished fourth in the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Racecourse on April 18, is a candidate for the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16, trainer Jim Cassidy said.
Verraco was beaten 9 1/2 lengths by Whiskey Ticket in his stakes debut.
“He needed that race back there,” Cassidy said.
A final decision on whether Verraco is sent to Maryland will be made following Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
“It depends on how the Derby runs and who may go in there,” Cassidy said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Darrell Vienna went 5 1/2 years between stakes wins, ending a lengthy drought when Si Sage scored a 42-1 upset in Saturday’s $100,750 Last Tycoon Stakes at Santa Anita.
Vienna may only need another week for another stakes win.
Saturday, he plans to start Mystery Train in the $100,000 Precisionist Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. The 5-year-old Argentine-bred Mystery Train has every chance to be competitive in the Grade 3 Precisionist. He was second in the Grade 3 Mineshaft Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds on Feb. 21.
[bc_playlist_id:289889:]Churchill Downs
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 48
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - They saved the best for last Sunday morning at Churchill Downs, the much anticipated final work for Kenetucky Derby favorite American Pharoah, who did not disappoint with an eye-catching five-furlong breeze which took place shortly after the renovation break during the special session reserved for Derby and Oaks horses.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Champion sprinter Work All Week, unraced since winning the Breeder’s Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, breezed five furlongs in 59.20 seconds over a “good” track Sunday at Churchill Downs Trackside as he prepares for his first start of 2015.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The ease and speed of his wins made American Pharoah the acknowledged favorite for the Kentucky Derby this Saturday, and he certainly solidified that position on Sunday morning at Churchill Downs with final workout that was both fast and seemingly effortless.
Del Mar completed installation of its dirt track earlier this week, a month before the course will be used for the first time. The new track will be used for training in advance of the Barretts sale of 2-year-olds on May 28. Del Mar’s summer race meeting runs from July 16 to Sept. 7.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – American Pharoah has been racing and training with a plate covering part of the sole of his left front foot, and on Saturday, trainer Bob Baffert said he would keep that plate in place for the Kentucky Derby, in which American Pharoah is expected to be the favorite.
“I was going to take it off to run him, but he’s had it there so long I don’t want to change,” Baffert said from California. “He’s traveling so well with it.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Beginning with Carpe Diem well before dawn at Keeneland and concluding with Dortmund later in the morning three time zones away at Santa Anita, a total of 10 prospects for the May 2 Kentucky Derby worked Saturday at seven different locales.
