Author: Wynn Elliott

Paulick Report by Chelsea Hackbarth Juddmonte’s Enable made history on Saturday as the first horse to win both the Arc de Triomphe and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same season, but the 4-year-old daughter of Nathaniel did not find it easy in either start. She won the Arc by 2 1/2 lengths in 2017, but an injury early in 2018 had her making this year’s Arc just her second start of the season. Enable managed to hold off Sea of Class by a short neck to defend her title, and she had another tough test beneath the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs. Two days of rain during the week leading up to the Breeders’ Cup had the turf course quite soft, and though jockey Frankie Dettori had galloped her on it Wednesday through Friday, Enable still struggled with the course through most of the 1 1/2-mile contest. “I was a bit further back than I wanted to be,” Dettori said of the early part of the race, when Enable was as far back as seventh in the 14-horse field. “From the bend to the back straight, I was four-wide. I felt that the ground was much worse on the inside, but I didn’t have the novelty to be wide with the draw. I was drawn two, and she didn’t break that well. Then the pace was on straightaway. I...

Santa Anita Press Release by Ed Golden It was business as usual Sunday morning for 23-year-old Santa Anita newcomer Angel (pronounced AIN-jell, as in a celestial being) Cruz and his 26-year-old agent, Matt Nakatani, son of Corey Nakatani. Cruz won his first race at Santa Anita Saturday with only his second mount this meet, piloting The Hunted to an impressive 5 ¼-length win at nearly 8-1 for trainer Richard Baltas. “We were both very excited,” Matt said of the victory in the one mile turf event in which The Hunted launched a five-wide bid on the second turn and drew clear in the stretch. “This is Angel’s fourth year of riding. He came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico when he was 11 years old. He grew up with the Ortiz brothers (Irad Jr. and Jose, currently dominating racing anywhere they choose to hang their tack). “They taught him how to ride.” The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Share this:PrintFacebookTwitterGoogleLinkedInTumblrPinterestRedditLike this:Like...

NYRA/Belmont Park Press Release by Brian Bohl Trainer Chad Brown (38 wins) and jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. (44 victories) both won their third consecutive meet titles as the respective leaders for the 35-day Belmont Park Fall Championship Meet that concluded Sunday. Klaravich Stables’ Homeland Security won the $125,000 Zagora in Race 8, breaking a tie with Michael Dubb to earn its 15th win to finish as the meet’s leading owner. Fresh off his record-setting effort in earning his second H. Allen Jerkens award as the Saratoga summer meet’s top trainer, Brown, who also won the Belmont spring/summer meet crown, enjoyed another successful fall campaign in which he had double the amount of winners than the next-closest competitor in Gary Contessa, who had 19 wins. Brown, the New York Racing’s Association’s leading trainer for the last three years from 2015-17, has won at least a share of the last seven Belmont fall meets dating back to 2012, the year he tied David Jacobson with 21 wins. His win total for the 2018 meet marked Brown’s second-highest for a Belmont fall meet, trailing only the 41 wins he tallied in 2017. “It’s great for our team. Everyone’s worked really hard and we had a lot of talented horses run well and everyone executed their jobs extremely well,” Brown said. “We’re proud of our team and hopefully we take this momentum into Aqueduct...

Oaklawn Park Press Release Hot Springs, Ark. (Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018) – It’s going to be a season of firsts at Oaklawn in 2019 and among the new additions set to debut when the track opens Jan. 25 is the Larry Snyder Winner’s Circle. For the first time in its 115-year history, winners of all overnight races will return to a dedicated winner’s circle named in honor of the longtime jockey and steward. “When it came time to think about a name for the new winner’s circle, it was a natural choice to name it in honor of Larry Snyder, a valued member of the Oaklawn family for nearly 60 years,” Oaklawn President Louis Cella said. “Larry was a leader among his peers both on and off the track. And, the respect he earned as a jockey carried over to the steward’s stand where he was respected by horsemen and track management alike.” Snyder enjoyed a 35-year career as a jockey that began in 1960 and included eight riding titles at Oaklawn where he won 1,248 races at the Hot Springs track. Among his most notable Oaklawn wins were the 1983 Rebel Stakes aboard that year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Sunny’s Halo, as well as the 1989 Arkansas Derby on Dansil, whom he would ride to a fourth-place finish in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. He became only...