Keeneland’s 15-day spring meet will offer 19 stakes worth a season-record $9.55 million in total, including a number of upgraded races, the track announced on Tuesday.
Those stakes purses include $2.25 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, pending approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation.
Shawn Bergquist, a top jockey agent across the Southwest who in recent times had been the stall superintendent at Remington Park, has died, Oklahoma chaplain Carl Criswell confirmed. Friends said Bergquist had been battling cancer.
During his career, Bergquist represented a number of notable journeymen when they were apprentices, including Jeremy Beasley, Roman Chapa, Jeremy Collier, and Quincy Hamilton.
Bergquist leaves behind a high school-age son. Criswell said last week that service plans were being determined with family.
Multiple Grade 1 winner La Cara leads a cast of eight entered for the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park.
The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares is one of five stakes on the annual Houston Racing Festival card. The program includes the $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup. The 12-race card begins at 1 p.m. Central.
La Cara, who is making her 4-year-old debut, earned her Grade 1 wins in last year’s Acorn and Ashland. Cristian Torres has the mount from post 8 for Tracy Farmer and trainer Mark Casse.
Obliteration was a dominant winner of his 3-year-old debut earlier this month in the $150,000 Renaissance at Oaklawn Park, a performance that will send him to the Middle East.
“He’s targeting the Saudi Derby,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He’ll fly over with Magnitude on Feb. 2, and the race is on Feb. 14.”
Asmussen trainee Magnitude is running on the same card in the $20 million Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse. The Group 3, $1.5 million Saudi Derby is being run at a distance of about a mile.
Tap Into This, who won his fourth race in his last five starts in The Coach overnight stakes earlier this month at Oaklawn Park, is likely headed for graded stakes company.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Tap Into This is being pointed for the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn. The 1 1/16-mile race is scheduled for Feb. 28.
Tap Into This won at the distance in The Coach, which was held Jan. 2, closing from last for a half-length win and a Beyer Speed Figure of 96.
Nominations have been released for the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes, the first major Kentucky Derby prep held locally each winter, to be contested at 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 31.
A total of 21 3-year-olds have been made eligible for the race, a group headed by the very impressive allowance winner Nearly for trainer Todd Pletcher. Other potential contenders include the Riley Mott-conditioned Incredibolt, who captured he Grade 3 Street Sense at Churchill Downs in one-sided fashion in his juvenile finale.
Balnikhov, the millionaire four-time stakes winner, has had a change of ownership in advance of his 2026 debut at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.
A 6-year-old gelding, Balnikhov will now race for Andrew Molasky’s Old Bones Racing, having been purchased for $70,000 at the Fasig-Tipton December digital sale.
Molasky was previously part of a partnership that owned Balnikhov, whose last stakes win was the Grade 3 Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico in 2024.
Balnikhov, trained by Phil D’Amato, was eighth of nine in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar on Nov. 28.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The brilliant mare Grand Slam Smile has won eight stakes in her career, seven for California-breds and the Fasig-Tipton Debutante in her second start at Santa Anita in June 2023.
In her only start in a graded stakes, Grand Slam Smile was a well-beaten third in the Grade 3 Torrey Pines Stakes at a mile on dirt at Del Mar in August 2024, the only time the 5-year-old mare has finished worse than second in 18 starts.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Six months ago, Vodka Vodka was a maiden nearing a comeback after a yearlong layoff.
On Saturday at Santa Anita, Vodka Vodka became a stakes winner in the $175,000 Unusual Heat Turf Classic and a candidate for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.
The move from a stakes for statebreds at 1 1/8 miles on turf to the $300,000 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on dirt is a significant leap, but trainer and co-owner Aggie Ordonez said the Big Cap is worth considering.
Todd Pletcher couldn’t have hoped for more than he got with the two Saturday runners he shipped to Fair Grounds from his winter base at Palm Beach Downs. The 3-year-old Jackson Hole, coming off a one-turn-mile debut win, easily captured a first-level route allowance, and 4-year-old Accelerize, making his fourth career start and stakes debut, led wire to wire in the Grade 3 Louisiana, where he held off odds-on favorite Just a Touch.
Both horses could return to Louisiana in February, Jackson Hole in the Risen Star, Accelerize in the Mineshaft Stakes.
