ELMONT, N.Y. - Danza, the Arkansas Derby winner and third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, will not run in the June 7 Belmont Stakes, trainer Todd Pletcher said Tuesday.
Pletcher said he was not happy with the way Danza came out of his half-mile breeze in 49.49 seconds Sunday at Belmont Park.
“Not happy the way he’s doing, think he needs a little more time, lost a little bit of weight,” Pletcher said. “We’ll give him a little bit of a break.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Not since Kentucky Derby Day had such prominent stakes horses sped down the Churchill Downs stretch, though on Tuesday, they did so training in the morning, not racing in the afternoon.
Among the horses to breeze Tuesday were Will Take Charge, the champion 3-year-old male of 2013 who ran sixth as the favorite in the Alysheba Stakes on Oaks Day; Central Banker, the winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on Derby Day; and Midnight Lucky, the Grade 1 Humana Distaff winner that same afternoon.
The 13-year-old mare Run Kaitlyn Run had two daughters win on last Thursday’s Golden Gate Fields card. Runninismygame won her debut in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden race for 2-year-old fillies, and Sheza Trip rallied to win a one-mile claiming race on turf.
Both fillies are owned and bred by Patricia Ford, trained by Bill Delia, and were ridden by Ricardo Gonzalez.
“You’ve never seen a happier group in the winner’s circle for a $4,000 claiming race,” said trainer Cinda Mahorney after Lucky Gotum’s half-length victory in the seventh race last Saturday.
The victory was Mahorney’s first as a trainer and came with the 16th runner she had saddled. It came with a 6-year-old gelding slated for retirement who had been sent to Mahorney at her Winning Start Race Farm to get over various issues. Owned by his breeder, Brent Kirk, along with Kevin Kirk and Greg McWilliams, Lucky Gotum paid $43.80 to win.
The new Golden Gate Fields racing secretary, Patrick Mackey, in his second week on the job, signed up 16 nominees to Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 All American, and a week before the race, a minimum of seven entrants seemed likely, according to stakes coordinator Chris Merz.
The Memorial Day card tops a five-day week of racing at Golden Gate, beginning Thursday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Thirty-six years in the waiting, 12 furlongs to go.
California Chrome, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, arrived at the final stop on his Triple Crown journey Tuesday, when a horse van carrying him and Preakness runner-up Ride On Curlin passed through the gates of Belmont Park shortly before 10:45 a.m.
The van arrived following an approximately 4 1/2-hour trip from Pimlico in Baltimore. The van got stuck in a little rush-hour traffic near the George Washington Bridge before picking up a police escort from the Throgs Neck Bridge.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Revolutionary, who earned a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure in winning last Friday’s Grade 3 Pimlico Special by a neck, likely will make his next start in the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 14, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
Pletcher said the race’s Grade 1 status and its place on the calendar are the major factors in his favoring the Stephen Foster over the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap at Belmont on July 5. Pletcher likes the spacing from the Stephen Foster to the $1.5 million Whitney Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 2.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Close Hatches, the Apple Blossom Handicap winner, worked five furlongs in 1:00.25 on Monday over the Belmont training track in preparation for her showdown with Beholder and Princess of Sylmar here in the Grade 1, $1 million Ogden Phipps Stakes on June 7.
Under Rodolphe Brisset, Close Hatches went her first three furlongs in 35.43 seconds and came home her final quarter in 24.82 without being asked. She galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.36 and seven furlongs in 1:29.81.
“She worked well, I was happy with her,” trainer Bill Mott said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It is not unusual to see the names Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher atop the trainers’ standings at Belmont Park. It is, however, a bit of a surprise when the name Bruce Brown is listed right there with them.
Through the first 14 days – or almost one-third – of the Belmont meet, Bruce Brown was hanging with the big boys, having saddled seven winners from 14 starters. He was tied with Pletcher, and both of them are two wins behind Chad Brown.
BALTIMORE ─ Victor Espinoza will get a second chance to make history, and this time, he believes he’s better prepared for it.
In 2002, Espinoza was the rider of War Emblem, whom he guided to front-running victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness only to stumble and lose all chance in the Belmont Stakes, finishing eighth.
