ELMONT, N.Y. – If Flat Out is going to regain his best form, then where else but Belmont Park to try and do it?
Winless in two starts this year, Flat Out returns to Belmont for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Westchester Stakes, the first graded stakes event of the 56-day Belmont spring/summer meet that begins Friday.
AUBURN, Wash. – Two prominent jockeys, including Emerald Downs’ all-time leading rider, will be absent when racing resumes Friday with a seven-race card at 6:45 p.m. Pacific.
Gallyn Mitchell, a fixture at Emerald for each of the track’s first 17 seasons, had a heart attack Monday at his home near Enumclaw, Wash., and later underwent emergency surgery at MultiCare Auburn Medical Center. Denise Mitchell, his wife and agent, told track officials that Mitchell was in good spirits and seeing visitors Tuesday while still in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A field of nine 3-year-olds is set to clash Saturday night at Churchill Downs in the Derby Trial, the traditional spring-meet opener that may or may not yield a final starter for the 139th Kentucky Derby a week later.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan, the reigning Horse of the Year, worked Wednesday morning over the Keeneland main track, going five furlongs in 59.60 seconds, the fastest time at that distance among 14 workouts that morning.
The Wednesday work was the first for Wise Dan since he won the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland on April 12, defeating four other horses.
“I just wanted to work him one time and see how he worked and how his fitness level was,” trainer Charles LoPresti said. “He worked really good today.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Sugarinthemorning has started 11 times since she last won, in the Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar in July 2011.
But it is not trainer Ron McAnally’s habit to give up on a horse just because of a losing streak. Last Sunday, McAnally, 80, won the $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita for the third time in his career with Interaction, who was winless in seven starts since last summer.
[bc_video_id:290201:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The rains came a little later than expected at Churchill Downs on Wednesday. But once they arrived, shortly before 8 a.m, it rained in earnest for the remainder of the morning, dramatically altering the condition of the racetrack by the time it reopened for the special Kentucky Derby/Oaks training session 30 minutes later.[:slideshow-right:]
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It wasn’t particularly surprising to see Bob Tiller get off to a hot start on opening the weekend, leading the standings with four winners from seven starters after two days.
But Darwin Banach, a trainer who came into the 2013 meeting well beneath the radar, also celebrated the return of Thoroughbred racing in fine style with three winners and a third-place finish from just four runners.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Ruvee is getting some class relief for his first run of the year in Friday’s Woodbine feature and should be prominent in the 5 1/2-furlong Ontario-sired allowance worth $52,500.
Ruvee was slow to come around last year during his sophomore season, but he woke up dramatically in an open maiden special Nov. 18. He went straight to the lead that day and kept on going to score comfortably at 62-1. For covering six furlongs in 1:11.19, he was awarded a 74 Beyer Speed Figure.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When trainer Jane Cibelli looks back at 2013, she will always cringe when recalling her decision to run Purple Egg in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby.
Illness prevented Purple Egg from making a couple of starts before that race, thus he went into the two-turn, 1 1/16-mile heat against Verrazano off a three-month layoff having never run beyond six furlongs. He finished last, beaten 28 lengths.
“Sometimes you do things and you look back and say ‘Why did I do that?,’ ” said Cibelli, who noted that Purple Egg displaced his palate in the race.
