LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Trackside training annex near Churchill Downs is quiet, just like the trainer whose stable nearly overruns the place. Mike Maker has always preferred that his horses do the talking for him, just as they did last weekend 600 miles away at Pimlico.
“Sure was,” Maker said with typical brevity when it was mentioned how awesome his Preakness weekend was.
The Texas Racing Commission on Tuesday approved the transfer of Retama Park’s meet for Quarter Horses to Sam Houston Race Park, according to an announcement by Sam Houston.
The 20-date meet will begin June 23 and continue through Aug. 7. Post time will be 6:45 p.m. Central.
The transfer was made because of damage Retama Park near San Antonio sustained to its grandstand, barn area, and racing office in a February ice storm, according to a press release from Sam Houston. The facility is undergoing repairs, by they will not be completed in time to conduct a meet.
Total viewership of the NBC broadcast of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course late on Saturday afternoon averaged seven million viewers, according to the broadcast network, a significant gain over the viewership number for the last time the race was held in its traditional slot, in 2019.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will be barred from entering and stabling horses at New York Racing Association tracks indefinitely, the company announced Monday afternoon.
The length of NYRA’s ban will be determined by additional information that comes out of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s investigation into the positive test of Medina Spirit after he finished first in the Kentucky Derby on May 1, according to a press release issued by NYRA on Monday afternoon.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Sainthood, 11th in the Kentucky Derby, worked a half-mile in 49.09 seconds on the Belmont Park turf course Sunday morning. The work may have earned him a start in the Grade 2, $200,000 Pennine Ridge on turf here May 29.
“I thought he went very well on it,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He certainly worked good enough to put the Pennine Ridge in play.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – It took longer than trainer Shug McGaughey would have liked, but Dreams of Tomorrow finally delivered a big performance Saturday at Belmont Park, winning a first-level allowance by 4 1/4 lengths.
Dreams of Tomorrow, a son of Speightstown, ran a mile over firm ground in 1:32.10 and earned a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure.
“Pretty impressive,” McGaughey said. “He finally ran the way we thought he could run. I think the blinkers off helped him settle more. With the blinkers, he was a little more aggressive.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – An updated claiming rule will go into effect with the start of the next condition book on May 28, automatically voiding a claim if the horse in question is observed to have bled or is declared unsound on examination by the track veterinarian within 30 minutes after the race. A successful claimant does have the option to request that a voided claim still be allowed within 15 minutes of the track veterinarian’s notification to the stewards.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The new racing week begins Thursday at Gulfstream Park with an eight-race program that offers a pair of allowance races along with the first maiden race of the meet carded for 2-year-olds on the turf.
The afternoon’s co-features will be decided on the main track, with the fourth race at six furlongs for 3-year-olds and up, and the seventh race at seven-eighths restricted to 3-year-old Florida-bred fillies.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It has been a great, bordering on sensational, start to the Belmont Park spring/summer meet for trainer Christophe Clement.
On Saturday, Clement won three races, including the Grade 3 Soaring Softly Stakes with Bye Bye. Clement has 13 wins and 9 seconds from 42 starts through the first 16 days of the meet. Clement is second in wins to only Chad Brown, who has 15.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Apprentice jockey Jessica Pyfer won a career-best four races from eight mounts on Sunday’s nine-race program to move into sixth in the standings at Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting.
Pyfer won three races on a program at Los Alamitos in December, shortly after she began riding last September.
Sunday, Pyfer won the second race with Rakassah ($6.20), third with Joe Don Looney ($4.40), seventh with Lofty ($7.40), and ninth with Sweet Devil ($10).
“It’s insane,” Pyfer said. “When I won three, I thought, ‘Wow, I did it again.’ ”
