California Chrome's injury to his right knee does not appear to be anything major, so he will depart Gulfstream Park later this morning for Kentucky, where he begins stud duty soon.
California Chrome had swelling in that knee after finishing ninth on Saturday in the Pegasus World Cup. On Sunday morning, Frank Taylor of Taylor Made Farm said, "He's not that bad," certainly fine to fly and be X-rayed after arrival at the farm.
Taylor said Dr. Larry Bramlage would examine the X-rays. Barring something unforeseen, Taylor said California Chrome is perfectly sound to be bred to mares, and he's scheduled to be bred to test mares as soon as Wednesday.
"He's got some heat and some filling. He's sound to walk, but he's off at the jog. If he's sound to walk, he's sound to breed mares," Taylor said.
Highlights of Saturday's wagering included:
* $11,114,341 on the 12th race (excluding multiple-race bets)
* $4,697,843 in win, place, and show pools in the 12th race
* $2,023,813 on the late Pick 4. It paid $102.80 on the minimum 50-cent bet.
* $1,105,296 on the late Pick 5. It paid $342.60 on the minimum 50-cent bet.
* $469,172 on the Rainbow 6. It paid $3,145.34 on the 20-cent only bet, with a carryover in the jackpot wager.
While there has been some talk of moving the event to Santa Anita Park in 2017, The Stronach Group president Belinda Stronach said the goal will be to keep the event at Gulfstream next year. She was thrilled with the racing and the event, which included entertainment by Thomas Rhett and Trombone Shorty. Other celebrities attending included Vanessa Hudgens, Usher, Maria Menounos, Mike Ditka, and Gene Simmons.
The day featured a North American-record price for a general-admission ticket of $100. It was the first time Gulfstream has charged for general admission to the racing facility it opened in 2006.
Red Oak Stable's homebred Unbridled Mo played the upsetter Jan. 29 in the $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic (G3).
Three-time grade 1 winner and odds-on favorite I'm a Chatterbox loomed during the stretch run to the wire, but the Uncle Mo filly turned away her older, more accomplished rival with determination to win the 1 1/16-mile dirt test by 2 3/4 lengths at Sam Houston Race Park.
Here's stat to further show how special Arrogate is: he's first to get Beyers of 116 or more in 3 straight races since Ghostzapper ... Ghostzapper's races came over space of 11 months in 2003-2004; 2 of 3 were sprints. Arrogate all routes, 5 months. Best figs in decade.
Arrogate's win in the inaugural Pegasus World Cup was no doubt impressive; the big gray son of Unbridled's Song crossed the wire geared down to win by 4 3/4 lengths over some of the best dirt horses in training. According to the official Equibase chart, the final time for the 1 1/8-mile contest was 1:47.61, as recorded by Trakus. The track record at Gulfstream Park is a bit faster: Lea won the Donn Handicap in 2014 in a final time of 1:46.86. However, a closer look at the race by TimeformUS‘s Craig Milkowski revealed that Arrogate may have covered the distance quite a bit faster than the time he is officially credited with.
Arrogate appears to have run a much faster race than is designated by the official charts, and Milkowski plans to adjust his TimeFormUS speed figure in the coming days. He was originally give a 134 for the effort, which was a bit lower than his previous races but still in the appropriate range. As the numbers are analyzed further over the coming days, it may even be determined that Arrogate did set a new track record in the world's richest race, or, at the very least, that he was quite close to doing so.
The official time of the $12 million Pegasus World Cup has been lowered nearly four-fifths of a second following a review by Gulfstream Park and its official timer, Trakus, according to an amended chart that was available late Thursday.
The official time of the 1 1/8-mile race will now be 1:46.83, according to the chart, 0.78 seconds faster than the 1:47.61 that was announced after the race, according to the track. The new time is a record for the distance at the track, faster than the 1:46.86 that was posted by Lea in the 2014 Donn Handicap.
Gulfstream Park officials had asked Trakus on Wednesday to perform an exhaustive analysis of the official time of the Pegasus, citing decisions by prominent speed-figure producers to modify their ratings for the race based on their belief that the official time was too slow.
Gulfstream officials said early in the day that they expected to announce a new official time by Thursday afternoon, but no announcement preceded the changes to the chart.
X-rays taken of the knee revealed no major injuries, Frank Taylor reported on Monday afternoon.
“No injury, x-rays were good, scoped good,” Taylor said. “We don't know if he just wrenched it or strained it, but it had a little filling, fluid and heat in it. We gave him bute and got him home, and it was cold and good.
“Actually, after the race the chiropractor came back and went all over him,” Taylor continued. “He thought there was something in that knee. He kind of stretched it and worked on it and he got some relief from it, got a little pop or adjustment out of it. I don't know if he did something coming out of the gate or what he did.”
California Chrome is scheduled to begin breeding test mares as soon as Wednesday.
Late on Monday afternoon, California Chrome was allowed to spend the first few hours outside in his paddock at Taylor Made, and the farm released a video of his first steps toward retirement:
An update on fallen rider Laurent Beaucamp who has since returned to his native France. Beaucamp was severely injured Labor Day weekend at Monmouth in New Jersey.
He had injuries to and/or surgeries for:
- several fractured vertebrae in his spine and neck,
- shearing of the spinal cord,
- fractured ribs,
- bilateral flail chest (parts of his rib cage broke away from the chest wall, requiring metal plates to stabilize),
- a punctured lung,
- lacerated liver,
- and a badly broken left arm.
- He underwent a number of surgeries to stabilize his spine and his rib cage, repair his liver, remove a part of his lung, and to install screws in his left arm.
source: Paulick Report.
IWR is my Derby horse now. Not a bad day at the track yesterday. Still playing with track money. Hoppertunity was a cinch. he was the only millionaire in the field.
Trainer Mark Casse was at a loss to explain Classic Empire's defeat in the Holy Bull as the odds-on choice, but said last year's 2-year-old champion was fretful during the Saturday van ride from Palm Meadows Training Center in Palm Beach to Gulfstream Park.
"He's fine today," Casse said Sunday morning of Classic Empire, who was washy in the post parade and reluctant to enter the starting gate. "Yesterday morning he was as happy and good as I've ever seen him. He just did not take the trip down there well. He's run in the Bashford Manor (G3) with the crowd and the lights, and we flew him to the Breeders' Cup, and those things didn't bother him, but yesterday was the first time he ever had to ship and run (in the same day).
"He's shipped all the time and never fretted before, but yesterday he really fretted. I don't know what was going on with him. Yesterday was also the first time I ever saw him balk about going into the gate. This horse wasn't happy yesterday and we really don't have a good answer. He ate last night. He's happy as he can be now, standing in his stall."
While Casse has not mapped out any plans for the next start for John Oxley's Classic Empire, he said it's unlikely the son of Pioneerof the Nile will run back at Gulfstream.
"I would say more than likely you won't see him back at Gulfstream again," he said. "We're already thinking about where we want to go, but wherever it is it will be somewhere he will train a little bit there before he runs. Yesterday came as a complete surprise to us, but the battle is far from over."
Two-time champion mare TEPIN had a touch of colic yesterday at her Palm Meadows training base and had to be treated for it, eliminating her from consideration for what trainer Mark Casse had planned to be her 6yo debut, the G3 Endeavour Stakes on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
We'll have full details up soon on www.drf.com, but Casse emphasized that the mare is fine and should be able to return to training soon to point for other races. "We definitely intend to run her this year," he said. "Whether this means we'll miss going to Dubai, I don't know. Regardless, there are plenty of other races for her this year."
Unbridled’s Song has continued to make headlines more than three years after his death, as he has been posthumously represented by champions Will Take Charge and Arrogate. The stallion’s final runners are 3-year-olds this year, and he appears to have another chance at a standout with Battalion Runner, the winner of an allowance/optional claimer last Saturday at Gulfstream.
Unbridled’s Song, who died in July 2013, had covered 113 mares that season, resulting in 80 live foals, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. One of those mares was the Tapit daughter Tamboz, a full sister to Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Tapizar. The mare is already the dam of Grade 2-placed Oceanwave and stakes-placed Tiznoble.
Battalion Runner is likely to become the next of her runners to graduate to stakes company after his allowance win, his first try around two turns and his second victory from three starts. The colt has won his last two races by a combined 10 lengths.