DEL MAR, Calif. - The Grade 1 winner Tamara and possibly Kopion, a two-time Grade 1 winner since Christmas, are candidates for the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 4.
The $100,000 Chillingworth could serve as a prep race for Kopion and Tamara for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1, trainer Richard Mandella said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The stakes schedule for the 2025-26 Gulfstream Park Championship meeting will have a familiar look to it with the program again highlighted by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, and the $1 million Florida Derby.
The three Grade 1 events are the focal point of a stakes program that offers 68 races overall, 27 of them graded, and 38 of which are carded on turf. The stakes have a total value of $15.2 million.
Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky., posted record handle and purse numbers for the seven-day meet that concluded on Wednesday, according to an analysis by Daily Racing Form, further solidifying its unique position on the U.S. racing landscape.
Southern California-based trainer George Papaprodromou has been suspended seven days after a filly he trained tested positive for the regulated substance capsaicin after winning a stakes race at Santa Anita in May, according to records of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.
This year’s series awarding qualifying points for entry into next year's Kentucky Derby will include 36 races, starting with Saturday’s Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs, according to a schedule released Monday by track personnel.
Twenty-one of the races have been categorized in the “prep season” running from Sept. 13 to Feb. 21, with most awarding 10 or 20 points to the winner. The exception is the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, which awards 30 points to the winner.
Overshadowed by the actions of his jockey, Kendrick Caramouche, which led to the Phileas Fogg’s disqualification from third in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, was how well Phileas Fogg ran to cross the wire third in that race.
Phileas Fogg was beaten 2 3/4 lengths by Antiquarian and finished 1 1/4 lengths behind Sierra Leone in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Soon after the break, Phileas Fogg, under Carmouche, came in on Contrary Thinking starting a chain reaction that led to jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. being unseated off Mindframe, the second choice in the race.
Nitrogen, the leading 3-year-old filly in the country, and Ewing, an undefeated graded stakes-winning juvenile colt, are both slated to make their next starts at Keeneland. On their way from Saratoga to Lexington, however, both are spending some quality time at Belmont Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar showed a slight decline in all-sources handle at its 31-day summer meeting that ended on Sunday, according to figures compiled by Daily Racing Form.
Handle on races run at Del Mar decreased 1.4 percent to $355,719,467 from $360,944,231 at the corresponding meeting in 2024. The 2022 summer meeting had handle of more than $439.6 million on races run at Del Mar, compared to $391.8 million in 2023. The figures do not include simulcasting conducted in conjunction with race days or on days without live racing.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Watching from Kentucky, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert saw what he expected when Brant won Sunday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.
Brant set the pace and won the seven-furlong race as the 1-10 favorite to confirm his status among the nation’s leading 2-year-old males as the summer draws to a close.
“I’m just glad he’s in my barn and I don’t have to run against him,” Baffert said in a phone interview.
Percy’s Bar went to Saratoga from her Keeneland base and finished second behind Tommy Jo in the Grade 1 Spinaway on Aug. 30. It was not a close second. More than six lengths separated first and second in the seven-furlong Spinaway.
Percy’s Bar’s trainer, Ben Colebrook, is not exactly looking forward to a rematch with fellow 2-year-old filly Tommy Jo in the Alcibiades Stakes next month at Keeneland, but a change of venue and a move from one to two turns at least gives Colebrook a glimmer of hope.
