ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mike Keogh has spent his off-seasons on the farm in Aiken, S.C., since taking on the position as trainer for owner-breeder Gustav Schickedanz in 1993.
But time and circumstances bring changes, and this year Keogh will be heading to Fair Grounds, where he has 24 stalls for the meeting that begins Nov. 22.
The Arkansas Racing Commission has proposed a number of amendments to the state’s claiming and workout rules, and if adopted the changes would go into effect with the start of the Oaklawn Park meet in January. Public comment is being received on the amendments, which will be considered for adoption at the commission’s next meeting Nov. 21.
Casiguapo, runner-up in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, was among 14 horses pre-entered Tuesday in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot. The field for the 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds will be limited to 10 when it is run Nov. 23. Final entries are Nov. 19.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Saturday drew a field of six, none of which has won a stakes.
Be Proud, Georgia, and Saintly Joan each won a maiden race in her last start. Perched and Pleasant Miss have placed in stakes. Arethusa is a maiden after three starts.
Perched was third in the Barretts Debutante Stakes at the Los Angeles County Fair in September. Pleasant Miss has been second or third in four stakes for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Shared Belief, unbeaten winner of Sunday’s $100,000 Hollywood Prevue Stakes, will get a distance test in the $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Betfair Hollywood Park on Dec. 14.
Shared Belief may go favored in the Grade 1 race over 1 1/16 miles.
“As long as the horse is good, we’ll try it,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Monday. “I think we’d be foolish not to consider it. He ran a really good race. He likes Hollywood.”
Groupie Doll, purchased for $3.1 million by Mandy Pope a few days after winning her second straight Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, has settled in at Belmont in preparation for another try in the Nov. 30 Cigar Mile, a Grade 1 race she lost in heart-breaking fashion last year to Stay Thirsty.
Groupie Doll had her first trip to the track Sunday morning, jogging a mile and galloping a mile over the training track.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A few more like that, and Almost Famous might be more than “almost.” The 2-year-old colt blew away what appeared to be a very competitive field of allowance routers Saturday at Churchill Downs, leading Pat Byrne to already start working backward from the 2014 Kentucky Derby.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Prospective fields are coming up deep for the twin 3-year-old stakes that will anchor the only Downs After Dark card of the fall meet Saturday.
Likely for the Grade 2, $175,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes for fillies are Allegheny Angel, Always Kitten, Dance Again, E B Ryder, Frivolous, Praia, Remember Then, and Tapicat.
The male counterpart, the Grade 3, $100,000 Commonwealth Turf, is expected to get Dorsett, Formidable Heart, Frac Daddy, General Election, Golden Sabre, Kaigun, Moro Tap, River Seven, Ruler of Love, War Dancer, and Winning Cause.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Believe You Can, the 2012 Kentucky Oaks winner who has not raced since finishing last in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park in late May, is being pointed to a return in the Grade 2, $150,000 Falls City Handicap on Nov. 28, the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature here.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Gia Scala, a maiden winner at seven furlongs in her second career start for trainer Ralph Biamonte, is scheduled to make her stakes debut in the $125,000 South Ocean here Nov. 24.
Owned by the Beclawat Stable of Les Pereira, Gia Scala had finished an encouraging fourth in her six-furlong debut here Oct. 12 before stalking the pace en route to a neck victory under jockey Patrick Husbands on Oct. 27.
