ELMONT, N.Y. – Rick Dutrow wrapped polo bandages on all four legs of the 3-year-old filly Recognize, watched as his brother Chip walked the filly a half-lap around barn 28, and then gave a leg up to an exercise rider and sent them on their way to the track
“That filly’s all right. We should win two or three with her this summer,” Dutrow said. “She’s live.”
With that, Rick Dutrow – one of the most successful albeit controversial trainers in racing – was back.
The owner of Pimlico Race Course plans to offer as many as 40 horses in a parimutuel future bet for the track’s Preakness Stakes this year, the acting president and general manager of the track said Thursday.
The Preakness Future Bet will open April 28 and close about 6 p.m. Eastern on May 6, about a half-hour prior to the scheduled post time of the Kentucky Derby, according to Mike Rogers, who oversees racing at Pimlico for the track’s parent company, 1/ST Racing. It will be the first parimutuel future bet offered on the Preakness.
Hit Show, the Grade 3 Withers winner, drew the extreme outside in a bulky field of 13 3-year-olds entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
The Wood’s top five finishers earn qualifying points (100-40-30-20-10) to the May 6 Kentucky Derby.
NOTEBOOK PRINCESS BETTINA SWITCHES SURFACES By Steve Andersen The last time Princess Bettina raced on dirt she finished last of 10 in a sprint at Del Mar in September. The loss has largely been forgot
Trainer Kenny McPeek comes into Saturday’s Blue Grass Stakes under the radar despite being expected to enter three in the Grade 1, $1 million race. Hayes Strike, last-out winner of the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel, headlines the trio, while McPeek also planned to saddle graded stakes-placed Sun Thunder and the unbeaten but lightly raced Mendelssohns March.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Could it get any better? The Friday opener of the Keeneland spring meet is racing at its finest, with three stakes anchoring a 10-race card rounded out by four allowances and three maiden-specials.
Six-figure purses, including sizable bonuses for Kentucky-breds, are the rule, with an $80,000 maiden race for 2-year-olds being the lone exception. The feature is the Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland Stakes, a key Kentucky Oaks prep headed by Wonder Wheel, the reigning champion among the current crop of 3-year-old fillies.
On the one-year anniversary of relocating to California, jockey Ramon Vazquez finds himself in an enviable position Saturday – riding favorite Practical Move in the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby and Grade 1-winning filly And Tell Me Nolies in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks.
Vazquez, 37, moved from Oaklawn Park to Santa Anita and began riding regularly in California on April 8, 2022. Top local jockeys Flavien Prat and Umberto Rispoli had announced plans to relocate; the timing was right for a West Coast move by Vazquez, whose agent is Bill Castle.
Best birthday gift ever? The 2021 yearling that Jim Bernhard purchased for Dana Bernhard ranks near the top. “My wife always gives me great birthday presents . . . the first Thoroughbred I decided to buy was a horse for her birthday at the July sale,” Bernhard recalled this week.
Reincarnate, third in last Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby, remains pointed to the Kentucky Derby, Tom Ryan, managing partner of SF Racing, part-owner of the colt, said this week.
Ryan said he was “proud” of Reincarnate’s effort and suggested a weather-interrupted training schedule in California may have hampered him some. Ryan said the horse has returned to trainer Tim Yakteen’s California stable and has emerged from the race in good order.
