Wandering Eyes

Fans of star turf mare Lady Aurelia are sure to be on the lookout April 5 when her 2-year-old half sister Lady Pauline makes her debut in a $60,000 maiden special weight at Keeneland. View the full article

Bold Thruster scrapes home in Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint View the full article

First Kranji Mission accomplished View the full article

Vittoria Perfetta another 3YO bullet for Clements View the full article

My Miracle blows rivals away at maiden win View the full article

Horses' body weights April 5 View the full article

Track conditions and course scratchings April 5 View the full article

Early scratchings April 5 View the full article

Kaleem Shah's Bellafina, a four-time graded stakes winner, meets American Pharoah's half sister Chasing Yesterday in the April 6 Santa Anita Oaks (G1). View the full article

With qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) on the line, a short but spicy field of six sophomore fillies will contest the Gazelle Stakes (G2), headed by graded winner Positive Spirit and last-out stakes winner Espresso Shot. View the full article

BULLETIN (c, 3, City Zip–Sue’s Good News, by Woodman), winner of the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, scored in another new stake Thursday at Keeneland when going wire to wire in the Palisades Turf Sprint S. Dominating the Hollywood Beach S. on debut last September at Gulfstream, the chestnut was not for catching on the yielding Churchill grass and was respected as the even-money favorite here in his seasonal debut. Away sharply under Javier Castellano, the $250,000 Keeneland September buy took up his customary spot at the head of affairs and showed the way through a :22.10 quarter. Kept after by Castellano on the turn, he showed an impressive turn of foot to blow the race open by the eighth pole. Real News (The Factor) put in a valiant late close, the only runner to make up significant ground, but Bulletin hit the wire with 1 3/4 lengths to spare over that rival in 1:02.92. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0, $655,570. O-WinStar Farm LLC, China Horse Club & SF Racing LLC; B-CresRan LLC (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. View the full article

I have my first runners of the week at Aintree with Mount Mews on a retrieval mission in the first and I run a very likeable horse in the bumper. Both horses have but of chances but I’m going in hope more than anything. This is a great festival where we as a family has […] The post Donald McCain Aintree 2019 Preview – Friday appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

Merseryrail Handicap Hurdle Nicky Henderson has won three of the last six renewals of this race, most recently with Rather Be in 2017. The Seven Barrows trainer solely represented this year by Kobrouk who’s returning from a very long absence. We last saw the French-bred gelding winning in his native France and it will very […] The post Aintree Festival 2019 Preview – Friday appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) winner By My Standards and El Camino Real Derby winner Anothertwistafate both worked April 4, one month out from the May 4 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). View the full article

Instead of chasing the bright lights of the Triple Crown, grade 1 winner Mind Control is entered in the $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes (G3), a seven-furlong sprint April 6 at Aqueduct Racetrack on the Wood Memorial undercard. View the full article

Kaleem Shah's Bellafina, a four-time graded stakes winner, meets American Pharoah's half sister Chasing Yesterday in the April 6 Santa Anita Oaks (G1). View the full article

United States Representative Andy Barr (R-KY), who co-chairs the Congressional Horse Caucus and is a co-sponsor of the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019, will reportedly tour Santa Anita Park this weekend in an effort to learn more about the circumstances surrounding 23 equine deaths at the track since the start of the meet on Dec. 26. The Washington D.C. news bureau of McClatchy.com on Thursday first reported news of Barr’s Santa Anita visit, noting that it was added on to the Congressman’s previously scheduled trip to take part in a fundraiser at the Beverly Hills Peninsula hotel hosted by a political action committee that benefits Barr called Building America’s Republican Representation (AKA “Barr-PAC”). A Thursday email sent by TDN to Barr’s communications director requesting confirmation and details about the Santa Anita visit did not yield a reply in time for deadline for this story. McClatchy reported that Barr’s visit will include a meeting with officials from The Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita. The story also reported that Barr “agrees with” Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) that there needs to be a Congressional review about the deaths. “We’re going to do some fact finding and learn a little bit more about the perspectives of what happened out there and what they’re doing to take remedial action,” Barr told McClatchy. “A lot of our constituents in Kentucky race their horses out there and there are a lot of ties.” McClatchy reported that “Barr stopped short of joining Chu and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (D-CA), who have called for the suspension of horse racing at the park until investigators determine the cause of the deaths.” Referencing the Horseracing Integrity Act bill that was introduced Mar. 14, Barr told McClatchy that “Anything we can do to make the sport safer and eliminate doping, we need to do that, because doping is unsafe for the equine athlete and the human athlete. The industry obviously has a challenge right now and we want the perception of the sport and the reality of the sport to be safe and we want to eliminate any factors that could contribute to more deaths.” View the full article

Vasilika will go for her third graded stakes win in as many starts this season when the 5-year-old daughter of Skipshot breaks from the rail in the $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes (G2T) April 6 on the Santa Anita Park turf. View the full article

The Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center (MMSC) has opened its first satellite facility at The Ranch, LLC in Frankfort, IL. The MMSC is a nonprofit organization that focuses on reschooling off-track Thoroughbreds by building a foundation of skill sets through its Horse Centered Reschooling ProgramSM prior to adoption to facilitate and ease their transitions to a new career. “People have been asking me for many years now about opening another facility,” Susanna Thomas, Executive Director of the MMSC, said. “While I was always flattered by these requests and appreciated the growing demand for reschooled OTTBs, I knew that it would be a challenge to maintain in a new and separate location the gold standard we had worked so hard to establish at the MMSC. Finding the right partners was key to this dream being realized at last.” View the full article

Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN) announced Thursday, their schedule for Saturday's three major Kentucky Derby prep races. View the full article

NBC Sports continues its extensive coverage of Derby prep races this Saturday, April 6 at 5:30 p.m. ET with live coverage of the Wood Memorial, Blue Grass Stakes, and Santa Anita Derby on NBCSN. View the full article

The mainstream, non-industry media, has been heavily critical of Santa Anita and racing in general since horses started breaking down at the Southern California in numbers that were well beyond the norm. So it should have come as no surprise when Thursday’s Los Angeles Times featured an editorial from its editorial board with the headline “Santa Anita should stop racing until it knows why horses are dying.” The editorial board concluded: “Given that unexplained increase, how is it possible that racing is still going on at Santa Anita? It seems obvious that until Santa Anita officials and all the relevant experts have the information they need to figure out the cause of the deaths, horses should not be racing there.” In another sentence that the industry might find alarming, the editorial board wrote: “Still, can we really justify hundreds of horse deaths each year to satisfy our need for entertainment? If owners can’t show they are very serious about bringing the number down still farther, the public will lose its tolerance for this collateral damage.” The Los Angeles Times is the largest and most influential newspaper in California. Santa Anita has announced no plan to close, despite pressure to do so not only from the Times but from Senator Diane Feinstein, Congresswoman Judy Chu and PETA. The story that 23 horses have broken down at santa Anita since the beginning of the meet has been met with widespread and largely unfavorable news coverage. Virtually every television station in Los Angeles has covered the story extensively and it was picked up nationally by, among others, the Today Show and CNN.com. The New York Times and Washington Post have also been following the story. Santa Anita will hold its biggest card of the year Saturday, one that features the GI Santa Anita Derby and the GI Santa Anita H. The media will no doubt be watching carefully. View the full article

Registration is now open for the sixth Thoroughbred Owner Conference, which will be held at Santa Anita Park from Monday, Oct. 28, through Wednesday, Oct. 30, OwnerView announced Thursday. The conference will once again coincide with the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which are scheduled to be held Nov. 1-2 at Santa Anita Park. The goal of the Thoroughbred Owner Conference is to educate, inform, and entertain new, prospective, and current Thoroughbred owners through a series of panels and social events. At this year’s conference, panels will include discussions pertaining to racing syndicates, aftercare, racing horses at the claiming level, jockeys’ preparations before races, and pedigrees. “The third Thoroughbred Owner Conference was held at Santa Anita Park in 2016 and was met with rave reviews, so we are looking forward to bringing this popular event back to Arcadia,” said Gary Falter, project manager for OwnerView. “We appreciate the continued support of Breeders’ Cup and The Stronach Group in our efforts to educate new, existing, and prospective Thoroughbred owners.” View the full article

Thirteen turf sprinters were entered for Keeneland's April 6 Shakertown Stakes (G2T). Heading the group are familiar foes Bound for Nowhere, Disco Partner, and Will Call. View the full article

Kentucky sprint star Limousine Liberal has won five of his six stakes victories at Churchill Downs and hopes to carry that success east to Keeneland when he tests 13 foes in the Commonwealth Stakes. View the full article