OZONE PARK, N.Y. – La Verdad, who won the Grade 2 Distaff Handicap and five other races last year, likely will make her 5-year-old debut in next Saturday’s renewal of the $200,000 Distaff, trainer Linda Rice said Friday.
“We are pointing her to the race,” Rice said. “She’s got to get past one more breeze on Monday. If I’m satisfied with the breeze, we could be in the Distaff.”
While the Kentucky Derby points list continues to take shape, so too are horsemen assessing the prospective field for its sister race, the May 1 Kentucky Oaks.
As of Friday, following defections, these are the 14 fillies (in order) atop the points list for the Oaks: Condo Commando, I’m a Chatterbox, Stellar Wind, Birdatthewire, Lovely Maria, Include Betty, Oceanwave, Angela Renee, Sarah Sis, Maybellene, Ekati’s Phaeton, Eskenformoney, Puca, and Shook Up. The first three alternates would be Luminance, Forever Unbridled, and Achiever’s Legacy.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Wicked Strong had his first workout since returning to New York from Florida, breezing five furlongs in 1:01.55 over the Belmont Park training track Thursday. What he is working toward is a question that has yet to be answered.
The two options are the Grade 3, $200,000 Excelsior Stakes at Aqueduct on April 25 or the Grade 3, $150,000 Westchester Stakes at Belmont Park on May 2. The Excelsior this year is run at 1 1/4 miles, lengthened from its usual 1 1/8-mile distance. The Westchester is a one-turn mile.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ocho Ocho Ocho, third in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 4, will have his next start at Churchill Downs on May 2.
A decision on whether Ocho Ocho Ocho starts in the $2 million Kentucky Derby or the $200,000 Pat Day Mile on the undercard will be made at the beginning of that week. The decision depends on how the colt trains and whether he can gain a berth in the Derby, trainer Jim Cassidy said Friday.
“I want to see how he’s doing coming up to it,” Cassidy said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Rafael Bejarano, the runaway leader in the jockey standings at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, has withdrawn an appeal of a three-day suspension, track stewards announced in a ruling on Thursday.
Bejarano, 32, was suspended three days March 22 for his ride aboard Jazzy Josh in the Pasadena Stakes on March 21. Bejarano was cited for failing to maintain a straight course in the stretch. The stewards did not conduct an inquiry, and no rider lodged an objection in that race. Jazzy Josh finished eighth.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Secret Circle, who won the $2 million Golden Shaheen in Dubai on March 28, resumed exercise at Santa Anita on Friday and could return to racing in early June in New York, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Baffert said Secret Circle is a candidate for the $250,000 True North Stakes at six furlongs at Belmont Park on June 5.
Secret Circle returned to Southern California last weekend, having been quarantined in Chicago following his return to the United States from Dubai. Baffert said Secret Circle showed enthusiasm in exercise Friday.
One day into the Lone Star meet trainer Bret Calhoun is batting .800. He won four races with five starters at Lone Star Park on the track’s opening night Thursday, including the $50,000 Premiere Stakes with Wagson.
Calhoun, a longtime Lone Star regular who captured training titles in 2010 and 2011, took the daily double when Adrianne G followed Wagon’s meet-opening victory in the second race. He then picked up additional wins with Yuppie Girl in the fourth and Gom Jabbar in the sixth.
Only Joedini in race 5 failed to win, running sixth.
ARCADIA, Calif. – California Chrome was back to exercising in England on Friday, nearly two weeks after a second-place finish in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
Trainer Art Sherman said on Friday that he had been in contact with trainer Rae Guest, who is housing the 2014 Horse of the Year at his stable in Newmarket, England, in advance of scheduled starts in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on May 16 and the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 17.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Few people are going to be watching the results of the Arkansas Derby more closely than Nick Zito.
The Hall of Fame trainer is dead set on getting Frammento into the lineup for the 141st Kentucky Derby on May 2 but will need a little help in the points standings for that to happen.
“The bottom line is he’s a mile-and-a-quarter horse,” Zito said. “That’s what he’s going to be best at.”
For a champion with 10 wins in 11 starts, Shared Belief has had to do a lot of convincing on his journey to the top of the Thoroughbred rankings in North America.
At first, he was regarded as a synthetic-track horse. Then he missed the 2014 Triple Crown with a foot injury, losing the opportunity to face the best of his division.
