LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bodexpress, the 11-1 winner of the Grade 1 Clark on Friday at Churchill, returned Sunday by plane to Gulfstream Park in Florida, where the Bodemeister colt will be prepared by trainer Gustavo Delgado for his next race, the Jan. 23 Pegasus World Cup.
Bodexpress earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for a second straight race when finishing a length ahead of Code of Honor, the 8-5 favorite in a full gate of 14.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In an unprecedented year, Tyler Gaffalione accomplished the unprecedented in Kentucky racing.
By topping the jockey standings at the 24-day Churchill Downs fall meet that ended Sunday, Gaffalione completed a sweep of the six major meets run in Kentucky this year – all three Churchill meets (spring, September, fall), plus both Keeneland meets (July and fall) and the rich Kentucky Downs meet in September. Not even the legendary Pat Day pulled off such a feat in his heyday, although clearly 2020 had a different schedule because of the ongoing pandemic.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Code of Honor, beaten a length by Bodexpress in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs, will likely get a rematch with that horse in the Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park, trainer Shug McGaughey said over the weekend.
“That’s what I’m pointing for,” McGaughey said.
McGaughey felt Code of Honor basically ran his race in the Clark and was simply second-best under John Velazquez.
Trainers Bob Baffert and Val Brinkerhoff were sanctioned by Del Mar stewards Sunday for medication violations involving their runners in the last 16 months.
Baffert was fined $2,500 after Merneith tested positive for the prohibited medication dextromethorphan, a Class 4 drug, in a post-race test taken after a second-place finish in the fourth race at Del Mar on July 25.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Parnelli is likely to have his stakes debut in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita on Jan. 2 after winning a maiden special weight race in his fourth start at Del Mar on Saturday.
Trained by John Shirreffs for Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stables, Parnelli ($2.60) was always near the front in the one-mile maiden race and pulled clear to win by 5 3/4 lengths under jockey Drayden Van Dyke.
“I thought it was a really good race,” Shirreffs said. “I was pleased he was on the outside. Drayden was able to get him to relax.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Say the Word, the winner of the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Stakes at Woodbine on Oct. 18, and Count Again, who won Saturday’s Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar, are under consideration for the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23 or the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 30, trainer Phil D’Amato said Sunday.
Jimmy Toner is one of many trainers who spend the winter in South Florida and return to New York in the spring. While Toner is again heading south for the winter, he said he will not be returning to New York in 2021.
Toner said when he leaves Florida next spring he will be stabled at Fair Hill, a training center in Maryland. One of Toner’s primary owners, AJ Suited Racing, owns a barn at that facility.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Junior Alvarado is heating up at the right time.
Alvarado won four of the 10 stakes run at Aqueduct over the Thanksgiving weekend as he prepares to move his tack to Gulfstream Park for the winter for the first time in more than a decade. Alvarado will ride one more week at Aqueduct - including Mr. Buff in Saturday’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile - before taking his wife Kelly and the couple’s three kids on a road trip to South Florida.
DEL MAR, Calif. – In the last five years, Thanksgiving weekend at Del Mar has been a late-season showcase for top trainer Chad Brown’s deep stable of turf runners.
Beginning in 2016, Brown has won at least one graded turf stakes on the holiday weekend at Del Mar. This year, Brown sent another strong group from his New York base and had his best success in recent seasons, winning four stakes from Thursday through Sunday.
The second half of the year is typically a time of European acquisitions for Jed Cohen’s Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal, operated by Cohen’s son Tim. The purchases tend to come in groups, in late summer and in the fall.
Sunday at Del Mar, Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal have both a summer purchase and a new buy in the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf.
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