California Chrome could go in Hollywood Derby
It used to be that once the Breeders’ Cup was over, things quieted down in the horse racing world. That is not the case this year.
Trainer Art Sherman told the Daily Racing Form that he is eyeing a potential start by California Chrome in the grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar on Nov. 29.
California Chrome, winner of the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness, has never started on grass before. He is in contention for two Eclipse Awards, Horse of the Year and for top 3-year-old male. One more grade 1 victory might tip the scales in his favor.
Also, trainer D. Wayne Lukas announced he will start Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Take Charge Brandi in the $400,000 Delta Downs Princess on Nov. 22. He is hoping one more graded stakes win will curry favor from voters for top 2-year-old filly.
In past years, most of these categories would be locked up by a dominant horse in each division. Not so this year.
There remain some major targets on the stakes calendar like the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs and the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct that can still factor in Eclipse Award voting.
For example, the older handicap division has been in disarray all summer mainly due to injury. Top horses like Game On Dude, Mucho Macho Man, Palace Malace and Will Take Charge have been sidelined for one reason or another.
In fact, the top six finishers in the Breeders’ Cup Classic were all 3-year-olds. That should bode well for the 2015 handicap division, but for now there is unfinished work left in 2014.
NAPRAVNIK RETIRES — Lost in the chaotic nature of the two-day Breeders’ Cup was the retirement of 26-year-old jockey Rosie Napravnik. She made the surprising announcement on national television, and to her mother for the first time, after she won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Untapable. Napravnik said was seven weeks pregnant and is leaving the sport to raise a family with her husband, and horse trainer, Joe Sharp.
She leaves while at the top of her game. I suspect, if I could make a future book bet, that Napravnik will someday return to the saddle. She is too young, talented and competitive to never ride again.
KENTUCKY DERBY FUTURES — Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager will be Nov. 28-30. Here in Las Vegas, we have the advantage of price shopping on Derby horses at Wynn Las Vegas and William Hill. Both opened their Derby future book a few weeks ago. For $5 a bet, they make great stocking stuffers that could grow in value on the first Saturday in May.
BOBBY FRANKEL TRIBUTE — A photo has been circulating on Twitter of the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel’s gravesite showing a floral blanket from the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint win by Bobby’s Kitten and a copy of that day’s Daily Racing Form.
The items were put there by Humberto Ascanio, a long time assistant to Frankel in Southern California. Bobby’s Kitten was named by owners Ken and Sarah Ramsay after Bobby Frankel. The horse is trained by Chad Brown, also a long time Frankel assistant.
After Bobby’s Kitten won the Turf Sprint, Brown and Ascanio wanted to honor the man who had meant so much to the two of them.
Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick.