Racing News

Regis Racing's Zindaya earned her second straight stakes win when she pulled away from the pack to take the $150,000 Intercontinental Stakes (VIDEO) at Belmont Park June 4.

Pressing the pace of longshot Believe in Charlie from the start, Zindaya opened up on the pack through the lane under Manuel Franco to prevail by 2 1/4 lengths over favored Marbre Rose, who had to steady in traffic on the turn for home. Both horses are trained by Christophe Clement.
    
Believe in Charlie ran the half-mile in :46.61 before Zindaya took command at the top of the stretch and finished off the seven-furlong grass test in 1:22.17 on a turf course rated good.

Three members of the Lopez family of jockeys will participate in the sixth race at Golden Gate Fields May 29, as father C. C. Lopez will ride against sons David and Erick in the mile claiming contest for 3-year-olds and up.  

The elder Lopez, a veteran rider based on the East Coast at age 54, comes to Golden Gate with momentum after winning the Lone Star Park Handicap (gr. III) at Lone Star Park May 25 with Majestic City. Earlier this year at Aqueduct Racetrack, he guided El Kabeir to victories in the Jerome (gr. III)  and Gotham (gr. III) stakes.

The birthplace of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, located in The Meadow Event Park in Caroline County, Va., has been named to the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service.

Known as the Meadow Historic District, the designation includes the foaling shed where Racing Hall of Famer Secretariat was born on March 30, 1970; his training barn, where he wore his first saddle and bridle; the yearling barn where he stayed as a colt; and a yearling barn annex, stallion barn, horse cemetery, well house and pump house.

The Meadow Historic District was named to the Virginia Landmarks Register on March 19. The property, which dates back to 1805, is owned by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

If the first two starts of her 2015 campaign are any indication, Bee A Magician will be a force to be reckoned with once again.  On Saturday night (May 9) at The Meadowlands, she not only defeated the boys in the $50,000 prep for the Arthur J. Cutler Memorial, she destroyed them.
 
Escaping at 12-1, despite coming off a track record performance at Yonkers, Bee A Magician was dismissed by the punters from post position 10.  Off the gate, Zeron asked his champion mare for a little speed, but his plan wasn’t to make the lead. 

"Saturday mornings with Myron," known to most as Meadowlands qualifiers, took place May 9 under overcast skies with temperatures in the 60s.
 
Mission Brief got back on track with a controlled 1:56.2 win, last quarter in 28.1, edging away on her own from Speak To Me for Yannick Gingras. The New Jersey Sires Stakes begin next Friday and would provide a comfortable starting point for the world champion daughter ofMuscle Hill should trainer Ron Burke and his partners Our Horse Cents Stable, J&T Silva and Weaver Bruscemi choose that route.

Koda Chrome finished third in his career debut May 7 at Belterra Park in Ohio, but to say it wasn't splashy would be an understatement (VIDEO).

The 3-year-old colt owned and bred by Karen Babcock of Echo Hill Farm in Kentucky is from one of only two known lines of the frame overo gene, which produces a colorful combination of markings and one or two blue eyes.

Koda Chrome, trained by Kentucky horseman Tom Drury, is by Blue Eyed Streaker out of the Atticus mare A Beauty Black and was ridden by Cory Orm. He dueled for the lead early and then settled for third behind the victorious Spun Diamond in the six-furlong maiden special weight event.

Sam Schillaci scored the 3,000th win of his driving career behind Pay The Winner in Northfield Park’s opening race on Monday evening (May 4).

They boldly loomed from far back to pass their rivals, besting the competition by 8-1/4 lengths in 1:58 over a sloppy surface.

Trainer Graham Motion said Hilltop Stakes winner Miss Temple City is on schedule to ship to England for the June 19 Coronation Stakes (Eng-I) for 3-year-old fillies at Royal Ascot.

"I've always wanted another opportunity to go back over there," said Motion, who saddled Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) winner Animal Kingdom   to an 11th-place finish at Royal Ascot in the 2013 Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I). "I love the fact she can go over there and run against 3-year-olds and not open company, which is hard to do. I like that she can run against 3-year-olds, go a mile, which we know she can do, and she's a filly who has never run on Lasix, and that's a big fact, too."

Jimmy Takter knows the thrill of winning the Elitlopp. To this day the trainer still gets goosebumps when retelling the story of Moni Maker’s victory in the 1998 edition of Sweden’s elite invitational for older trotters. He hopes to experience the excitement again with Maven on Sunday.

 Maven is one of the 16 trotters invited to the Elitlopp, which is held at Solvalla Raceway near Stockholm. The field was divided into two eight-horse eliminations, with Maven drawing post four in the second division. The 6-year-old mare will be driven by Takter’s brother, Johnny, and is the morning line second choice in her race.

B B S Sugarlight is the morning line favorite in Maven’s elimination and will start from post one. Mosaique Face is the choice in the first elim, which also includes another U.S. representative, Daryl Bier’s Wind Of The North, as well as former North American star Nuncio, who is owned and trained by Sweden’s Stefan Melander.

California Chrome continues to please his connections on both sides of the Atlantic as he prepares for a start in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot next month.

Trainer Rae Guest, who is overseeing the colt’s preparation for the race, posted the following update May 12 on his website:

California Chrome has been doing everything right as his build up to Royal Ascot continues.  Rae and Robbie (Mills, exercise rider) are both pleased with his progress.

With a determined battle-back rail run in the stretch, David Jacobson's Stallwalkin' Dude captured his first stakes score in the $100,000 Diablo Stakes (VIDEO) at Belmont Park May 10, and spoiled the 2015 debut of Palace Malice in the process.

Off at 9-2 odds, the son of City Place led, with fractions of :22.63 and :45.61, lost the lead to challenger Clearly Now at the eighth pole, then rallied again on the inside with jockey Angel Cruz to prevail in the six-furlong test by a neck.

"He always responds in the end, and fights to the end and doesn't quit," Cruz said. "When I hit him left (handed), he keeps going. ... He's always a fighter never quits."

Jimmy Takter-trained Maven, driven by Johnny Takter, was beaten by a neck in the Broline Copenhagen Cup Sunday afternoon (May 10) at Charlottenlund in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Going around the last corner, Takter opened up by three lengths and looked like a winner, but Dutch-trained Robert Bi, driven by Robin Bakker, finished strongly and caught Maven just before the finish line to win the 1-1/4 mile event in 1:52.3f (mile rate), a new world record.

The old record was 1:53.2 belonging to the Swedish trotter Nahar.

West Point Thoroughbreds' world-record holder Twilight Eclipse earned a career-best victory May 9 at Belmont Park, winning the $400,000 Man o' War Stakes (gr. IT) by a neck to take home his first grade I event (VIDEO).

In 2014 Twilight Eclipse had the misfortune of facing the year's champion turf male, Main Sequence, in four consecutive grade I races, culminating in the Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT). Though he failed to beat Main Sequence during the campaign, he ran consistently well, never finishing worse than third and hitting the line within two lengths of his champion foe in each of the four times they met.

Lease Ness Monster crossed the finish line faster than any four-year-old mare in the history of Northfield Park when she won the $13,000 Fillies and Mares Open in 1:52.1 on Thursday (May 7). The clocking breaks the 1:52.2 former record by Don’t Blame Her (Greg Grismore) in 2007.

Beholder has been scratched from the May 9 Vanity Stakes (gr. I) at Santa Anita Park because of an illness that appears similar to the one that took her out of the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) last year.

Trainer Richard Mandella reported the two-time Eclipse Award winner had a fever of 102.6 degrees and had a high white blood cell count the morning of May 7 at Santa Anita, which forced him to scratch.

"She's fighting something, so she's out of the race," Mandella said.

One of the most unlikely Grade 1 winners of 2014 will make his season debut May 9 at Belmont Park, with 2014 Arlington Million winner Hardest Core running in the $400,000 Man o' War Stakes against last year's Man o' War winner Imagining.

Hardest Core, a 5-year-old son of Hard Spun trained by steeplechase conditioner Eddie Graham for Andrew Bentley Stables, upset multinational Group- and Grade 1-winning invaders Magician and Side Glance to land the Arlington Million at odds of 11-1 last August.

That victory capped a five-race win streak at distances from 1-1/16 miles to 1-1/2 miles on the lawn and sent Hardest Core to the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf, where he finished eighth after setting a rapid pace. Imagining was seventh, besting Hardest Core by half a length.

The Grade II Los Alamitos Derby to be run on Saturday, July 4 will highlight the upcoming 2015 Los Alamitos Summer Thoroughbred meeting set to open on July 2 at the Orange County, California track. This will be the second running of the Los Alamitos Derby, which was won last year by the Champion Shared Belief.

The $350,000 Los Alamitos Derby to be run at one mile and one-eighth is one of two Grade II races set to be contested during the eight-day Los Alamitos summer meet. Joining the Los Alamitos Derby on that list of graded stakes will be the GII $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes, to be run on Saturday, July 11 at six and one-half furlongs. The Great Lady M Stakes is written for fillies and mares and was won last year by Doinghardtimeagain, trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer.

This is the second year Los Alamitos has hosted thoroughbred race meetings on its expanded one-mile oval. In addition to the eight day summer meet, Los Alamitos will host the Los Angeles County Fair meeting in September and a three-week winter meeting in December.