Great Britain-based trainer Jeremy Noseda confirmed that he plans to ship Susan Roy's stakes winner Sloane Avenue to South Florida for the $500,000 Donn Handicap (gr. I) Feb. 7 at Gulfstream Park.
Belmont Stakes (gr. I) victor Sarava became the first Classic winner to be retired to Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement center in Georgetown, Ky., when he arrived the morning of Sept. 29.
Son of Awesome Again is getting a break from training and competition and will undergo a nuclear scintigraphy scan.
Awesome Act worked in :48 1/5 and galloped out in 1:00 2/5 on April 27. Jockey Julien Leparoux was in the irons.
Derby contenders Awesome Act (4f, :48 1/5) and Conveyance (5f, :59 4/5) work Tuesday morning over a "muddy" track at Churchill Downs.
In his first work at Churchill Downs, Gotham Stakes (gr. III) winner Awesome Act breezed six furlongs in 1:12.60 under Julien Leparoux, the fastest of four works at the distance April 20.
MAHUBAH'S CORNER, by Avalyn Hunter
From a separate branch of the Almahmoud family than fellow Triple Crown hopeful Eskendereya comes Awesome Act, who powered into consideration with an easy Gotham Stakes win.
Susan Roy and Vinery Stables' Awesome Act turned in an impressive performance in his first start on dirt, accelerating past rivals at the top of the stretch en route to a 1 1/4-length victory in the $250,000 Gotham Stakes.
European invader Sixties Icon, who has won three consecutive group III events in England, was installed as the 2-1 morning-line choice for the inaugural $500,000 Breeders' Cup Marathon Oct. 25 at Santa Anita Park.
Sixties Icon, under a cool ride by Frankie Dettori, scored an emphatic 2½ length victory in the Ladbrokes St. Leger Stakes (Eng-I) at York on Saturday.
Wilko, the 2004 Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) winner, makes his first start in nearly seven months Saturday when he faces six 3-year-old rivals in the $50,000 Larkspur Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.
Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) winner Wilko could meet unbeaten Del Mar Futurity (gr. I) victor Declan's Moon in the $250,000 Hollywood Futurity (gr. I) Dec. 18, a race that would have major ramifications in determining the 2-year-old colt and gelding champion for 2004.
Sarava, who upended the Triple Crown bid of War Emblem by winning the 2002 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), will enter stud at John Sykes' Cloverleaf Farms II near Reddick, Fla.
Wilko, a two-time allowance winner on turf in England, is heading to the $1.5 million Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) after being purchased in part by California owner Paul Reddam.
New Phoenix Stable and Paul and Susan Roy's Sarava, the winner of the 2002 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), will make his return to racing on Thursday in a $65,000 optional claiming event set at one mile over Santa Anita's turf course.
Sarava, winner of this year's Belmont Stakes (gr. I), has been transferred from trainer Kenny McPeek to the barn of Bob Baffert in preparation for a 2003 Southern California campaign that his owners hope will carry him to the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, held during the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.
New Phoenix Stable and Susan Roy's Sarava, who won this year's Belmont Stakes at 70-1 and was expected to compete this summer at Saratoga, has fractured a cannon bone and will be on the sidelines until probably next year.
In the 1970s, when he attended the University of Kentucky, Gary Drake would forgo class and head out to Keeneland "with $4 in my pocket trying to make my fortune." It's unlikely Drake made a score equal to the one he enjoyed when his New Phoenix Stable's Sarava shocked both him and the rest of the racing world by capturing the June 8 Belmont Stakes.
