Hot Rod Charlie came out of his victory in the Louisiana Derby on Saturday in good order and will be trained straight up to the Kentucky Derby on May 1, trainer Doug O’Neill said Sunday morning.
In addition, several horses who chased him home – most notably runner-up Midnight Bourbon and the race’s beaten favorite, Mandaloun - also came out of the race well and also remain on the Derby trail, their trainers, Steve Asmussen and Brad Cox, respectively, reported Sunday.
Colonel Liam not only won his third turf stakes in a row Saturday, capturing the Grade 2, $300,000 Muniz Memorial by 1 1/2 lengths over longshot Two Emmys, he got what looked like an ideal bridge race between the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf, which was run Jan. 23, and the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic on May 1 at Churchill Downs.
“Part of the plan running there was to bridge the gap between the Pegasus and the Churchill race, and I thought we got exactly what we were hoping for,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Flavien Prat expanded his lead in the jockey standings at the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita with a five-win day Saturday.
Prat, 28, is in the midst of an outstanding month, having won six races on an eight-race program on March 12.
Prat opened Saturday’s program by sweeping the early double with Lalic ($4.20) and None Above the Law ($2.80).
Later on the program, Prat won the fifth race on Ward ‘n Jerry ($6.20), the seventh race, the Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes, on United ($3.80), and the eighth race on Fratelli ($11.40).
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockeys Jorge Vargas Jr. and Dylan Davis were taken to a local hospital to be evaluated for injuries as the result of a three-horse spill in the final race Saturday at Aqueduct.
According to two jockeys who spoke to the riders, Vargas was complaining of back pain while Davis was complaining of pain in his collarbone. Nik Juarez, a third rider involved in the spill, escaped injury.
Life Is Good emerged from a fast work at Santa Anita on Saturday morning with an apparent hind-end injury and is off the Triple Crown trail, his trainer, Bob Baffert, said Saturday afternoon.
The unbeaten colt, who is the current favorite for the Kentucky Derby on May 1, was scheduled to make his next start in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3.
"He came back to the barn after the work and was off when he turned," Baffert said earlier Saturday. "We have to do more tests on him. It's nothing obvious."
Life Is Good emerged from a fast work at Santa Anita on Saturday morning with an apparent hind-end injury and will at the least not run in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3, his trainer, Bob Baffert, said early Saturday afternoon.
"He came back to the barn after the work and was off when he turned," Baffert said. "We have to do more tests on him. It's nothing obvious, but he's out of the Santa Anita Derby."
Six horses based at Laurel Park in suburban Maryland have been shipped to a quarantine site off-track after testing positive for equine herpesvirus, one week after the track had to cancel a live race card due to a positive at the track for the highly contagious disease.
The six positive horses were among 20 that the Maryland Department of Agriculture tested for the virus after a horse tested positive earlier in the week. The horse who initially tested positive “did not respond to treatment” and was euthanized, the agriculture department said.
George Taniguchi, who won more than 1,500 races in the 1950s and 1960s and later worked as a racing official at California tracks, died earlier this month after a brief illness, according to his niece, Donna Johnson.
Taniguchi was 94 and was at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., at the time of his death.
Taniguchi rode from 1954 to 1968 and was a jockeys’ room contemporary of such notable riders as Eddie Arcaro, John Longden, Ralph Neves, Bill Shoemaker, and Jack Westrope, to name a few.
The 86th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Longacres Mile is the highlight of the 2021 live meet at Emerald Downs. The Longacres Mile is scheduled for Aug. 15.
A handicap race for 3-year-olds and up, the Mile is supported by the $50,000 Emerald Distaff for fillies and mares. The Mile is one of just two open stakes for 3-year-olds and up during the meet, with the 6 ½-furlong $50,000 Mt. Rainier preceding it on July 11.
