LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the spring of 2011, a race pitting Pants On Fire and Taptowne would have resulted in a blowout victory for Pants On Fire.
Pants On Fire was the Louisiana Derby winner that spring, and finished ninth behind winner Animal Kingdom in the Kentucky Derby. Taptowne, meanwhile, was still eligible for a first-level allowance race on Derby Day of that year, and had been whipped early in the Spiral and Lexington stakes.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Julien Leparoux won the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf on Diamond Bachelor, then rode Tamarando to win the Del Mar Futurity, which gave him seven stakes wins for the meet, tops among riders in his first full season at Del Mar.
Leparoux relocated to Southern California one year ago after marrying the former Shea Mitchell, daughter of trainer Mike Mitchell.
POMONA, Calif. – Revisions to the stakes program at the Los Angeles County Fair will be necessary next fall if the E.B. Johnston Stakes, originally scheduled for Saturday, is to be saved.
For the second time in three years, the $50,000 route for California-bred fillies and mares did not fill. Five nominated, none entered, and the first Saturday of the 13-day Barretts at Fairplex season will not have a stakes.
“It’s an important day for us, and we should have a stake,” racing secretary Tom Knust said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Strong Mandate, the 9 3/4-length winner of Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, arrived in Kentucky on Wednesday but soon will be making another road trip.
[bc_video_id:303942:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kelly Breen is no longer a college dude, but the 44-year-old trainer has a youthful vigor that should make him feel right at home Saturday night at Churchill Downs.
BOSSIER CITY, La. – One of the main questions within the $100,000 guaranteed pick four sequence at Louisiana Downs on Saturday is whether Gantry can fire off the bench in the second leg, the $50,000 Temperence Hill Stakes. The six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up is one of five stakes on the undercard supporting the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby. The pick four, which has a 50-cent minimum, will be on races 8 through 11.
Hard-core horseplayers should really enjoy these. Back-to-back-to-back stakes scheduled for Saturday at Kentucky Downs combine the elements they always say they want: big fields, turf, no heavy favorites, a melting-pot look, and classy horses trained and ridden by top-notch horsemen.
The opening-day card at the south-central Kentucky track begins at 1:35 p.m. Central with a $75,000 maiden race. Each of the 10 races attracted fields of 10 or more, with no fewer than 11 entries in the trio of co-featured filly and mare stakes.
Magical Moon faces older horses
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby is clearly the highlight of the card at Hastings on Sunday, but there will be a lot of interest when Arabella’s Muse makes her second start, in the $100,000 Sadie Diamond Futurity, one of the five supporting stakes on the 10-race program.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As hard as it may seem to believe, not everybody enjoys Saratoga.
Based on two poor performances in the Sword Dancer Invitational sandwiched around a poor effort in last year’s Arlington Million after training in Saratoga, trainer Shug McGaughey has deduced that Boisterous is not a fan of the Spa.
