Secret Circle may have earned a start in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 2 with an emphatic comeback win in an optional claimer Monday.
Unraced since finishing second to Bodemeister in the Arkansas Derby in April 2012, Secret Circle won the six-furlong race by 1 1/2 lengths in 1:07.98.
“When they’re off that long, sometimes you forget how good they are,” trainer Bob Baffert said in the winner’s circle.
Game On Dude on Tuesday turned up the intensity of his preparation for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2 when working a sharp six furlongs in company at Santa Anita.
Game On Dude was given an official time of 1:12.20 for six furlongs, and his trainer, Bob Baffert, had him going out seven furlongs in “1:25 and change.” He will have two more works prior to the Classic, in which he is expected to be favored.
“Everything went great,” Baffert said. “He was sharp. He’s on schedule.”
The additional distance Que Deseo picks up in Thursday night’s eighth race at Remington Park should be a boon for the half-brother to multiple Grade 2 winner Wasted Tears. He goes in a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance that has a $50,000 claiming option. The race is one of two intriguing offerings on the eve of Friday night’s $1 million Oklahoma Classics program at Remington. In the fifth Thursday night, multiple stakes winner Stachys takes on 3-year-olds Texas Bling and Steelman Run.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two of the 11 3-year-old fillies invited to run in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup were withheld from the Grade 1 race last weekend at Keeneland, leaving a field of nine.
Discretion proved the better part of valor in the case of the first of those defections, Discreet Marq, a New York-bred filly who won the $200,000 Pebbles Stakes on Monday at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. -- Cluster of Stars, the undefeated New York-bred filly, was entered Monday for Saturday’s $150,000 Iroquois Stakes at Belmont Park and will not be supplemented to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, her connections said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tom Proctor gave one of the more flippant answers ever aired on a post-race television interview after Temeraine won the $400,000 Kentucky Turf Cup last month at Kentucky Downs.
Asked what was next for the horse, Proctor replied with mock seriousness: “Give him a bath.”
All kidding aside, Proctor is looking forward to the next start for Temeraine, and that’s the $100,000 Sycamore Stakes, a Grade 3 turf marathon to be run Thursday at Keeneland.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Corey Nakatani has had several multiple-win days in recent years.
On Saturday, he rode four winners on the 10-race program, including Qiaona in the California Distaff Handicap on the hillside turf course. In 2012, Nakatani had four winners at Aqueduct on April 7 and had five wins the following week at Oaklawn Park. On Oct. 8, 2011, Nakatani rode six winners at Belmont Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tap It Rich, an impressive winner in his career debut over one mile Saturday, might start in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
Trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday that he wants to observe Tap It Rich in the next week before finalizing plans. Baffert said he and his clients, Fog City Stable, would give the BC Juvenile “some serious thought if [Tap It Rich] trains well.”
A decision must be made by Oct. 21, the day pre-entries are due for Breeders’ Cup races.
ELMONT, N.Y. – John Velazquez got reacquainted with one old friend and was introduced to a new buddy Sunday morning at Belmont Park, as preparations continued for next month’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
Velazquez worked multiple Grade 1 winner Point of Entry five furlongs in 1:01.20 on Sunday over the Belmont turf, a solid move that appears to have Point of Entry on schedule for the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 2.
[bc_video_id:307099:]ARCADIA, Calif. – There is a pick six carryover of $91,550 for Sunday’s nine-race program at Santa Anita.
A series of beaten favorites Saturday led to the carryover. The pool of new money Sunday could easily exceed $500,000.
The pick six covers the fourth through ninth races. There is one stakes on Sunday’s card – the Anoakia Stakes – but it is the day’s third race.
As of Saturday morning, there was one early scratch in the pick six races. Take out Krazypapaya from the eighth race.
