ARCADIA, Calif. – Chaos seemed to be part of Reef Runner’s brief career in California, which consisted of the final Saturday of August at Del Mar and on Saturday at Santa Anita.
Reef Runner, typically based at Gulfstream Park with trainer David Fawkes, was disqualified from first and placed second in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 30. With the demotion, Reef Runner lost a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 1.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 22nd, 23rd, and 24th graded stakes wins of 2025 for trainer Bob Baffert occurred at Santa Anita over the weekend with some results that were hard to forecast.
While Cavalieri overcame a troubled start to win Sunday’s Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes for fillies and mares as the 7-10 favorite and secure a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 1, wins by Nevada Beach at 8-1 in Saturday’s Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes, and Imagination at 5-1 in Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship were surprises.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After not being hit during the first two cards this week, the pick 6 at Aqueduct will have a two-day carryover of $110,188 entering Saturday’s 12-race program.
The carryover was confirmed after Amazing Athena ($64.18) upset the eighth race, a $35,000 claiming race for fillies and mares on the turf. Gun Song ($11.54), who won race 7 – the Beldame – as the 9/2 third choice, was the second highest price in the sequence.
Journalism, one of the nation’s leading 3-year-olds, worked a half-mile on dirt in 47 seconds on Friday at Santa Anita in advance of the Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Trained by Michael McCarthy, Journalism was second behind Fierceness in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles at Del Mar on Aug. 30 in his last start. Friday’s workout was the second for Journalism since that race. Last Saturday, Journalism worked a half-mile in 48.20 seconds.
Kopion, the winner of three graded stakes for female sprinters since December but second in her last two starts, will not race again until the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1, trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday.
Mandella had considered starting Kopion in the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on Oct. 4. Instead, Mandella will run only Tamara, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante in 2023 who has not raced since she finished second by a nose in an allowance race at Del Mar last November.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Flavien Prat, the reigning Eclipse Award-winning jockey, will be based at Aqueduct this winter, though he will likely do a lot of traveling for weekend stakes.
Prat has typically been based at Santa Anita during the winter, but with his children now attending school, Prat preferred to stay with his family in New York, where he is based for most of the year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ways and Means, who has not raced since a dominant victory in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses at Saratoga in June, has gotten sick for the second time in the last few months and will not race again this year, trainer Chad Brown said.
An illness kept her out of the Grade 1 Ballerina in August and, after breezing once in late August, she got sick again, Brown said.
“We’re going to rest her and race her next year,” said Brown, who trains Ways and Means for owner Seth Klarman.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Napoleon Solo, a 5 1/4-length debut winner of a six-furlong maiden race at Saratoga on Aug. 8, worked a half-mile in 47.47 seconds Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track in preparation for a start in the Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct on Oct. 4.
Napoleon Solo, working by himself after the second renovation break, went in splits of 11.94 and 23.15 seconds before galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.75. It was his second straight bullet work at Belmont following a bullet at Saratoga on Aug. 31.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite her fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx on Sept. 20, Scottish Lassie will still be pointed to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 1, trainer Jorge Abreu said Friday.
Scottish Lassie, who won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks by 15 1/4 lengths on July 20 at Saratoga on the lead, was sixth of seven down the backside in the Cotillion. While Abreu didn’t necessarily want Scottish Lassie on the lead, he wasn’t expecting her to be that far back under Joel Rosario.
The California Horse Racing Board, acting on a recommendation from a hearing officer, has denied Patrick Valenzuela’s request to restore his jockey’s license in the state, a racing board official said Thursday.
The decision was reached by the racing board in a closed session at its monthly meeting Sept. 18 and was subsequently announced on the racing board’s website.
In a three-sentence statement, the racing board said, in part, that the proposed decision from the hearing officer was adopted.
