Honor A. P., winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on June 6 and fourth in the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs, has been retired because of a tendon injury, trainer John Shirreffs said Monday.
Honor A. P. will enter stud in 2021 at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, the farm announced in a statement Monday. A fee has not been determined.
The injury was detected last week shortly after Honor A. P. returned to Shirreffs’s base at Santa Anita.
Santa Anita has postponed the start of its autumn meeting from Saturday to Sept. 25 because of a massive wildfire in the mountains near the racetrack, the track announced late Monday morning.
The wildfire began Sept. 6 and has grown to 33,000 acres with minimal containment.
“The current weather pattern has kept the smoke in the valley and the air quality is quite poor right now,” Aidan Butler, executive director of California racing for the track’s parent company, The Stronach Group, said in a statement.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmsusen is approaching a milestone of 9,000 career Thoroughbred training wins in North America, according to Equibase. He entered the Monday card at Louisiana Downs at 8,992.
Asmussen ranks as North America’s second-leading all-time trainer behind the late Dale Baird, who won 9,445 races. Asmussen has divisions of his stable at a number of tracks and will see action Wednesday night at Remington.
So will jockey Floyd Wethey Jr., who enters the card two wins from a milestone of 1,000 career riding victories.
Stephen “Hap” DeAngelis, a longtime trainer turned steward, died Saturday in New Jersey, according to friend Pat Devereux. DeAngelis was 82.
“He was just a champion of a guy,” Devereux said.
Devereux, a Louisiana-based trainer who met DeAngelis years ago in Kentucky, said his friend was a leading trainer on the Ohio circuit before becoming a steward and working at tracks in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Devereux said DeAngelis was a highly personable man whose patience was one of his best attributes as a trainer. He had friends throughout the industry.
The fields have been drawn for the six stakes making up the Louisiana Cup program Saturday at Louisiana Downs, and each race has a minimum of 12 entrants.
The Louisiana Cup was not originally scheduled to be run this meet due to the pandemic, but the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association and Louisiana Downs worked together to find a way to hold the races and announced earlier in the meet that the purse for each stakes would be $40,000. However, purses were able to be increased to $50,000 for each raceat .
Jockey Rico Flores, who sustained a cervical spine injury in a Sept. 1 spill at Louisiana Downs, on Friday was transported to a physical therapy facility in New Orleans, according to his longtime girlfriend, Sally Warne.
“He’s going to have therapy every day to get him stronger,” she said.
Flores underwent surgery Sept. 7, Warne said. The objective was to relieve pressure on his spinal cord. He was released from the hospital Friday.
“He’s in good spirits, wanting his ribeye steak,” Warne said.
“He’s grateful for all the prayers and concern.”
Sleepy Eyes Todd was scheduled to fly to Santa Anita on Monday night for an intended start in that track’s Grade 1, $300,000 Awesome Again on Sept. 26, according to trainer Miguel Silva.
The horse is based at Remington Park.
Sleepy Eyes Todd is being pointed for the Awesome Again because of its status as a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Silva said Monday.
“It’s going to be a tough race,” he said.
Red King, winner of the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 22, will have his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland and will not start in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship on Sept. 26 at Santa Anita, trainer Phil D’Amato said over the weekend.
Red King earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Turf with his win in the Del Mar Handicap.
“We’re going to train up to the Breeders’ Cup with him,” D’Amato said. “We’ll take him to Keeneland a month early, and he can breeze over that turf course.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After hosting the first five days as Kentucky Derby week, Churchill resumes the balance of its 14-day September meet Thursday with a nine-race program.
In all, nine more cards are scheduled: Thursday through Sunday this week, followed by Wednesday through Sunday (Sept. 23-27) next week. The only stakes remaining is the Grade 3 Ack Ack on Sept. 26.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Authentic has returned to training at Churchill Downs as the 2020 Kentucky Derby winner now sets his sights on the Oct. 3 Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore.
Authentic and his Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Thousand Words both are stabled in Barn 44 of the Churchill backstretch with D. Wayne Lukas. Both are galloping each morning with Lukas and his longtime assistant, Bas Nicholl, overseeing them.
