Things to know today
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The board of stewards at Canterbury Park has summarily suspended the trainer Jose Silva Jr., a day after he was served with a notice of violation under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. The notice alleges that he refused investigators access to a recreational vehicle parked on the Canterbury backside, that he gave conflicting accounts of where he was that evening, and that a witness believed the vehicle held a banned substance. No search of the vehicle was ever carried out and none has been authorised by the Minnesota Racing Commission or its stewards. Silva has until 18 September to respond in writing, no hearing has been held or concluded, and he did not answer a request for comment. Four horses he had entered at Prairie Meadows on Sunday were scratched. He was Canterbury’s leading trainer in 2025 and has 41 wins from 138 starts at the meet, which ends on 19 September (Paulick Report) |
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Parx Racing has drawn eleven for the betPARX Pennsylvania Derby and nine for the Cotillion on Saturday, each a Grade 1 worth a million dollars. Further Ado, the Blue Grass winner, runs for Brad Cox and Spendthrift Farm as the biggest earner in the Derby field at 1,476,958 dollars, against Iron Honor, The Puma and Our Moneyman, who was bought for two million dollars at a Fasig-Tipton sale in July. Always a Runner, Chad Brown’s Kentucky Oaks winner, heads the Cotillion field over a mile and a sixteenth. The Derby is the fourteenth of fifteen races on the card, with a post time of 5:48pm Eastern and a first race at 10:35am (Paulick Report) |
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Quarry won the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Saturday, a mile and an eighth on a fast track in 1:52.38 for a purse of 250,000 dollars, three quarters of a length clear of Sav’n Money with the Lexington Stakes winner Trendsetter a length and three quarters further back in third. Henry Witt Jr. claimed the War of Will gelding for 80,000 dollars at Churchill Downs in June, since when he has won the Canadian Derby at Century Mile for the trainer Jerry Gourneau. Witt said he claimed him because he was a big, long bodied, good horse who had been running just mediocre (Paulick Report) |
| 4 |
Flavien Prat won two stakes at Churchill Downs on Saturday. Built took the 300,000 dollar Louisville Thoroughbred Society over six and a half furlongs in 1:16.28, a length and a half clear of Echo Again, for Wayne Catalano and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, a seventh win in fifteen starts and a payday that lifts him past 883,000 dollars. Catalano said the colt was doing well coming into the race and ran like it, and that the aim now is the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland. Prat then won the 268,500 dollar Open Mind on Usha for Bob Baffert, six furlongs in 1:10.55 and three quarters of a length from Look Forward (Paulick Report) |
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Woodbine ran two Grade 3 races on Saturday alongside its Grade 1s. Heavy Pour, a five year old Pennsylvania bred gelding based at Presque Isle Downs, shipped in to win the 175,000 dollar Vigil over seven furlongs in 1:22.06 by a length from the reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Mansetti, a first graded win and a fourth in succession, Gaddiel Martinez riding for Tim Girten. Lupa won the 175,000 dollar HPIbet Ontario Matron over a mile and a sixteenth in 1:43.38 by three and a quarter lengths from Fantastical, a first graded win for the Irish bred filly, trained by Josie Carroll for Mark Dodson (Paulick Report) |
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Dainey gave Bob Baffert his fiftieth daytime thoroughbred stakes win at Los Alamitos on Saturday, taking the inaugural 100,500 dollar Becca Taylor Stakes by two and a quarter lengths under Emisael Jaramillo, six furlongs in 1:09.82. The three year old daughter of Tiz the Law, owned by Patti and Hal Earnhardt III and bought for 110,000 dollars as a yearling in the summer of 2024, had not run since winning on debut at Santa Anita on 31 May. It was Jaramillo’s first stakes win at the track (Paulick Report) |
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Godolphin was named the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s national owner of the year and national breeder of the year for 2025 at the 41st TOBA National Awards, presented on 10 September at the Kentucky Castle in Versailles. Puca, owned by Ace Stud in Newmarket and the dam of Mage, Dornoch and Baeza, was named broodmare of the year. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners took the Cot Campbell partnership award on the strength of six graded stakes winners, three of them at Grade 1 level, and Gregory Kilka and Christine Connelly of Bright View Farm, who bred Book’em Danno, were small breeders of the year (Paulick Report) |
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