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.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Eclipse Award champion Wonder Wheel returns to the site of her biggest wins as she headlines the opening-day entries at Keeneland.
Wonder Wheel, with Tyler Gaffalione in the irons for trainer Mark Casse, leads a field of seven 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland , the feature among three stakes on Friday’s 10-race program at Keeneland, which was drawn Tuesday.
First post is 1 p.m. as the bucolic Lexington, Ky., track kicks off its 15-day spring meeting.
Sunland Park Derby winner Wild On Ice is scheduled to have his first work since that victory on Friday, trainer Joel Marr said Tuesday.
The drill will come at the horse's base of Sunland Park, which wrapped up its meet Sunday. Marr said no decision has been made on whether Wild On Ice will advance to the Kentucky Derby.
“He’s doing well,” Marr said. “We’re planning on a little breeze on Friday. We’re going to determine what’s going on after that. We have a possible flight on Sunday, so we’ll just see how it goes and how he comes back.”
