MIAMI – At a time of year when most of the top handicap horses stabled on the East Coast have travel plans that will take them to Miami for the winter, Itsmyluckyday and Atreides will find themselves heading in the opposite direction over the next couple of weeks.
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Less than $40,000 shy of being a millionaire, the 5-year-old turf mare Centre Court will not race at Churchill Downs on Nov. 22 in the Grade 3 Cardinal Handicap and instead has been retired, trainer Rusty Arnold said this week from Keeneland.
“I didn’t like the way she worked [Monday],” said Arnold. “She’s been too good to us not to go ahead and retire her.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs has released the dates for the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager and once again will offer Pool 1 during the final weekend of the current fall meet while also reverting to a Friday-to-Sunday wagering window.
These are the dates for the four futures pools toward the 141st Kentucky Derby on May 2: Pool 1, Nov. 28-30; Pool 2, Feb. 6-8; Pool 3, Feb. 27 to March 1; and Pool 4, March 27-29.
It’s not a hop, skip and a jump to get to Delta Downs in the small southwestern Louisiana town of Vinton.
“The last two hours are by stagecoach,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said.
Lukas on Wednesday confirmed he intends to send Breeder’s Cup winner Take Charge Brandi for the Grade 3, $400,000 Delta Downs Princess on Nov. 22.
It is not a simple trek to get to Delta. Horses flying in must land in either Houston or New Orleans, then van several hours to the Louisiana-Texas border track, nestled under mile-high pine trees.
Delta Downs took pre-entries for its richest races of the meet on Tuesday, with Wake Up Nick, Conquest Tsunami, and Mr. Z among 13 runners pre-entered in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot. Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Take Charge Brandi led the list of 17 pre-entries for the Grade 3, $400,000 Delta Downs Princess.
The Jackpot, for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles, and the Princess, for 2-year-old fillies at a mile, will share an afternoon card on Nov. 22. Delta will take final entries for both races next Tuesday, said the track’s director of racing, Chris Warren.
Lost a bit in all the hoopla surrounding Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Preview program was the performance the previous afternoon of Little Daddy, who returned to the main track and turned back from a mile to seven furlongs to trounce a strong group of second-level optional claimers by 8 1/4 lengths for owner-trainer Carlo Vaccarezza. The multiple-stakes-placed Little Daddy received a career-best 94 Beyer Figure.
“He ran a huge race and I think we have found his niche,” said Vaccarezza. “He looks like he wants to go between three-quarters and seven-eighths.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mutin is headed to south Florida and likely a stakes race after winning Sunday’s featured allowance race at Aqueduct.
Making his first start since January, Mutin rallied from next-to-last under Irad Ortiz Jr. to win a third-level allowance race by three-quarters of a length over Sky Blazer.
It was the fifth win from nine starts for Mutin, but his first since May 2013.
Mutin, a son of Kentucky Dynamite, was making his first start for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. He ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:46.48 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Effinex, the upset winner of the Empire Classic Handicap at Belmont last month, is likely to make his next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup, said racing manager Russell Cohen. The Hawthorne Gold Cup is run at 1 1/4 miles over the Hawthorne main track.
Trained by Jimmy Jerkens, Effinex worked six furlongs in 1:15.55 on Sunday over the Belmont training track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, a multiple Grade 1 winner who was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last time out, may not be done with her 3-year-old season just yet.
Trainer Leah Gyarmati said Monday that she is considering running Sweet Reason in the Grade 3, $400,000 Comely Stakes for 3-year-old fillies here Nov. 29.