LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rocket Time earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Thursday feature at Keeneland, a victory trainer Al Stall Jr. partly credits to the 3-year-old recently having been gelded.
“I’m much happier with his attitude now,” said Stall. “He’s always been a big, physical, strong-looking horse, but he’s made some mistakes going around there. Hopefully, we’re on the right track with him now.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Led by Noble Damsel Stakes winner Annecdote, trainer Christophe Clement entered three fillies and mares for Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Athenia Stakes, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Twelve fillies and mares were entered in the Athenia, including Teen Pauline, who was entered for the main track.
Annecdote drew post 12. In her U.S. debut, Annecdote showed a devastating late kick to rally from last and win the Noble Damsel by 2 3/4 lengths.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There have been two equine fatalities at Belmont this week.
On Wednesday, Stenson, a 3-year-old son of Freud, was vanned off after finishing second in the first race, a maiden race for New York-breds on turf. He was euthanized after being found to have fractured sesamoids in his right foreleg. Stenson was trained by Debra Divitto, who also owned the colt along with Stephen Dyer.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Close Hatches, fourth as the 1-5 favorite in Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland, returned to the track Thursday, jogging a mile around the Belmont Park main track under Leanna Willaford.
“She feels great, couldn’t fault her,” said Willaford, assistant to trainer Bill Mott. “She’s happy. Sometimes they have an off day like the rest of us. I have a lot.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Kiaran McLaughlin says he doesn’t do it often, but in the paddock prior to Bay of Plenty’s return to the races Wednesday at Belmont Park he asked jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. to try and save something for the next race.
“I said we don’t need a hard race, just in case we want to run back in three weeks,” McLaughlin said Thursday. “It went according to plan.”
Tamarando, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity in 2013 and two other stakes, is nearing a return to racing following a summertime break.
Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Tamarando is a candidate for the $100,000 California Flag Handicap for statebreds at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course on Oct. 18, according to Dan Ward, Hollendorfer’s assistant.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Story to Tell had a fine start to his career until he started in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 3, finishing sixth.
“He didn’t like the track down there,” trainer Dan Hendricks said.
A return to training on dirt at Santa Anita in the last month has brightened Story to Tell, Hendricks said. The trainer has mapped a three-race autumn campaign that begins in Monday’s $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes for 2-year-olds at six furlongs.
Rainha Da Bateria earned an expenses-paid berth in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with a win in the Grade 3 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland on Wednesday. The Jessamine was the last Win and You’re In race for the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and trainer Graham Motion said Rainha Da Bateria would be shipped from Keeneland to Santa Anita next week to begin final preparations for the one-mile race Oct. 31.
Among a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile field that will include a $1.6 million purchase and several others who brought six figures at auction, there is Texas Red, a son of Afleet Alex who sold for a mere $17,000.
Keith Desormeaux, the trainer and part-owner of Texas Red, doesn’t really know why. He thinks it’s the horse’s modest pedigree, noting that Afleet Alex has been “cold” at stud, and the dam is a Chilean-bred mare, Ramatuelle, whose four other foals have not done much.
Otherwise, Texas Red is “a physical masterpiece,” Desormeaux said.
