Horse Racing News

Javier Castellano, the Eclipse Award-winning jockey the past four years, is among five veteran riders who are finalists for the 2018 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.

Sharp Azteca's Cigar Mile romp was every bit as good, if not better, than his runaway win in the Gulfstream Park Handicap in his first start this year, or his easy win in the Monmouth Cup, or his dominating score in Belmont's Kelso Handicap.

Sharp Azteca proved he could run just as well from off the pace as he has when he's on it as he rallied from third to dominate Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.

The horses had barely cooled out from the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf on Nov. 3 at Del Mar and trainer Jonathan Thomas began thinking about running Catholic Boy, a close fourth in that race, in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct.

Before the tide of history washes over last weekend's action at Del Mar, there were two performances that deserve note, and that might have been ignored in the wave of successful East Coast invaders, since both were local productions.

Drefong, the Eclipse Award-winning male sprinter of 2016, the year he won the Breeders' Cup Sprint, has been retired from racing and will be moving to Japan to take up stud duty at Shadai Stallion Station.

Canadian Horse of the Year contender Pink Lloyd capped a remarkable 8-for-8 campaign in Woodbine stakes with a decisive score in near track-record time in Saturday's Grade 2, $197,050 Kennedy Road Stakes.

When the year began, trainer Tony Dutrow justly believed Mo Town was his derby horse. Turns out, he was right. It wasn't the Derby on the first Saturday in May, rather a derby on the last Saturday in November.

Brendan Walsh sent Multiplier to win the Illinois Derby here at Hawthorne this past spring, and on Saturday evening he won the Grade 3, $150,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup with Scuba.

He was still wearing his Breeders' Cup Classic morning training saddle towel on the track at 6:30 a.m. last Friday at Fair Grounds, but by now Gun Runner's connections have earned the right to train him in a Hawaiian grass skirt if they so choose.