LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rosie Napravnik was temporarily overcome with emotion when addressing an appreciative crowd Saturday while being honored by Churchill Downs for her numerous feats as a jockey.
In halting words, Napravnik, who is expecting a baby in June and stopped competitive riding as of Nov. 1, said: “I want to thank the guys that are down here – most of the jockeys – for helping me become a better rider in a great colony.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It hasn’t been the best of years for jockey Julien Leparoux, but things could be a lot worse.
In fact, you won’t hear Leparoux complaining one bit after what he accomplished Saturday at Churchill Downs in sweeping twin turf stakes for 3-year-olds – the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere on the filly Sparkling Review and the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf on Heart to Heart.
MIAMI – Having had his career slowed by not one but two condylar fractures, and with a daily diet that basically consists of nothing more than soup, it’s a wonder Speechify can still race at all, let alone defeat a quality field like he did in the Kenny Noe Jr. Stakes on Sunday at Gulfstream Park West.
Making just his second start since suffering his second condylar fracture during a workout in January, Speechify dominated seven rivals in the six-furlong Kenny Noe, drawing off to a 3 3/4-length victory under Paco Lopez.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Reade Baker will have a big shot to win Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Kennedy Road Stakes at Woodbine for the second year in a row, as he will start all four horses he has nominated to the race: Jose Sea View, Go Blue Or Go Home, Sharp Sensation, and last year’s Kennedy Road winner, Bear No Joke.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The 2013 Canadian Horse of the Year Up With the Birds has arrived in Japan ahead of his engagement in the Group 1 Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 30, trainer Malcolm Pierce said Sunday.
Up With the Birds began his journey to Japan on Friday, leaving Woodbine by van for Chicago in order to make his flight to Tokyo, which departed early Saturday afternoon. Up With the Birds arrived in Japan on Sunday after a 15-hour flight which included a stop in Anchorage, Alaska.
Gulfstream Park plans to hire a clocker to record official workout times at the Palm Beach Downs training center, the top official of the track said on Monday.
The clocker will be in place at the private training center by Dec. 1, according to Tim Ritvo, the president of Gulfstream. The training center had previously relied on trainers to provide their own workout times.
DEL MAR, Calif. – With a victory on a synthetic surface on his résumé courtesy of his win in the Bob Hope Stakes for 2-year-olds at Del Mar on Saturday, No Problem may be heading north to Golden Gate Fields for his next start. That could come in the $75,000 Gold Rush Stakes on Dec. 6, according to his trainer, Michael McCarthy.
“That race could fit him well, at a flat mile,” McCarthy said on Sunday. “But we’ll wait and see how he comes out of this race. So far, he looks to have come out of it well.”
DEL MAR, Calif. - The big pick six carryovers over the weekend continued a surge in handle for Del Mar through the first two weeks of the meet.
On Sunday, with $599,483 already in the kitty courtesy of a three-day carryover, bettors poured another $2,552,818 into the pick six pool. That contributed to an overall handle for the day of $11,932,117. On the comparable Sunday at Hollywood Park last year (Nov. 17) the handle was $8.5 million. The handle at Santa Anita on Oct. 26, the Sunday prior to the Breeders’ Cup, was $10.2 million.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Del Mar was informed over the weekend of the death in August of former jockey Pete Moreno, who was the leading rider here in 1960 and won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1961.
Moreno won 1,650 races during a 16-year riding career. After he finished riding, Moreno was a longtime racing official on this circuit.
His survivors include his wife, Jan.
Moreno, 87 at the time of his death while living in Hemet, Calif., was the older brother of jockey Henry Moreno, who won the 1953 Kentucky Derby on Dark Star.
MIAMI – Nominations have been released for the only two graded stakes of the inaugural Gulfstream Park West meeting, the Grade 3 Tropical Turf and its filly counterpart, the My Charmer Handicap, both to be decided on grass here next Saturday.
