OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Gezora, the 9-1 winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, will be transferred to Chad Brown and have a 4-year-old campaign stateside.
Gezora is getting a 30-day break at Dell Ridge Farm in Lexington, Ky., before she joins Brown’s stable at Payson Park in Florida. Gezora is owned by Peter Brant, one of Brown’s main clients.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Book’em Danno, the multiple Grade 1 stakes-winning New Jersey-bred, will soon be joining trainer Derek Ryan’s stable at Tampa Bay Downs to begin preparing for his 5-year-old campaign.
Ryan, speaking Friday morning at Belmont Park, where he has a few horses stabled, said Book’em Danno is currently on a farm in Ocala “chilling” and getting some exercise on a treadmill. Ryan said while he doesn’t anticipate having Book’em Danno ready in time for a trip to Saudi Arabia in February, he didn’t rule out a trip to Dubai for the Golden Shaheen on March 28.
The mini turf festival at Churchill Downs this week continues Sunday with the featured seventh race, a third-level allowance with a $100,000 claiming option carded for one mile on grass.
This comes one day after the River City Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile grass race for older horses, and two days after Churchill filled a fourth-level allowance for older turf milers.
Immersive never really got untracked this year after winning an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly of 2024. And Good Cheer had a quiet second half of her 3-year-old campaign after capturing the Kentucky Oaks. But both fillies will race on next year at age 4, trainer Brad Cox said this week.
Trainer Mike Trombetta said that 2-year-old filly Ultimate Love came out of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in good order and will now return to her owners at Live Oak Plantation for what is expected to be a month-long winter break. Undefeated in three starts before the Breeders’ Cup, she is expected to be a bright spot in Trombetta’s stable when she returns for her 3-year-old campaign.
With jockey Jaime Rodriguez taking more work at Aqueduct in the past two months, the fall meet at Laurel has become an opportunistic one for several jockeys remaining in Maryland. With the leading rider momentarily out of the picture, Yedsit Hazlewood and Jorge Ruiz have taken full advantage and are tied atop the standings with 30 wins each.
Post Time may stand his first breeding season at Northview Stallion Station next year, but Brittany Russell made sure to point out that the announcement on Oct. 23 did not mark his retirement. The Mid-Atlantic superstar remains in Russell’s barn for now, and she is still holding out hope that she can send him out a winner before his career comes to a close.
“It would be really cool if we could let him go out on a win,” Russell said. “But look, obviously, we’ll only do that if he’s telling us he’s ready for it.”
Aqueduct racetrack in Ozone Park, New York, has added a Wednesday race card to its schedule next week to make up for cards lost last week to weather conditions, the operator of the racetrack announced on Tuesday.
The request to add the Nov. 12 card to the live schedule was approved by the New York State Gaming Commission, according to the New York Racing Association. Entries for the card will be drawn on Thursday.
NYRA canceled the Thursday and Friday cards last week due to heavy rain and high winds.
DEL MAR, Calif. – For the second consecutive year, the veteran gelding Gold Phoenix was the best-placed American-based runner in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar.
For the second consecutive year, such a distinction was not enough for a top-three finish in the nation’s richest grass race.
Gold Phoenix was fourth last year, 3 1/2 lengths behind Rebel’s Romance. On Saturday, Gold Phoenix was fifth, beaten four lengths by the surprise Irish-based winner Ethical Diamond.
