Super Derby top two might meet again at Remington

Limation won the richest race at Louisiana Downs on Sunday when he captured the Grade 3, $300,000 Super Derby.

Now, he’s being pointed for the marquee race at Remington Park.

“I expect the Oklahoma Derby to be next for him,” trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday.

The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby will be run Sept. 30. Asmussen and Mike Langford – who owns Limation – teamed to win the race last year with Untrapped.

Limation was always prominent in the Super Derby under Diego Saenz, and won the 1 1/16-mile race by 5 3/4 lengths over favorite Lone Sailor. Limation earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 97.

“He’s always been a fast horse and Diego had him in a position that worked out really well,” Asmussen said.

Asmussen said Limation appeared to have emerged from the Super Derby in good order and remains based at Remington.

“Knock on wood he’s always been a perfectly sound horse, a really healthy horse,” he said.

Lone Sailor closed for second as the favorite in the Super Derby, and he also may run in the Oklahoma Derby, trainer Tom Amoss said Wednesday.

“He’s fine, back at Churchill Downs,” Amoss said. “He ran his race. The race kind of got away from us. We weren’t able to catch up at the end. But, no excuses. We ran our race.

“We’re going to regroup, but certainly the Oklahoma Derby is something we’re thinking about.”

The Super Derby was Lone Sailor’s sixth second or third in a stakes race. He came into the race off a third-place finish against champion Good Magic in the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational. Earlier this year, Lone Sailor was fifth – beaten two lengths by Justify – in the Preakness.

“He runs his races,” said Amoss, who trains Lone Sailor for G M B Racing.

Premier Night tops Delta meet

Delta Downs will put the spotlight on Louisiana-breds during its meet, which opens Oct. 17 and runs for 84 dates through March 9. The track has announced plans to run 28 stakes worth a cumulative $2.2 million, with 18 of those races restricted to horses bred in Louisiana.

The Feb. 9 Louisiana Premier Night program of 10 stakes for Louisiana-breds – four of them starter stakes – will serve as the meet’s richest card. Purses that day will total $895,000. The card will be topped by the meet’s two richest races, the $150,000 Championship and the $125,000 Distaff.

Delta’s marquee races had been the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot and the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess, but those stakes were canceled for 2018 at the request of the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, Delta officials said in May. At the time, Louisiana HBPA officials said they felt the funds would be best used in overnight purses.

Apocalyptical Jess to Texas

Apocalyptical Jess, winner of the $3 million All American Futurity for Quarter Horses on Monday at Ruidoso Downs, could see action next at Lone Star Park. Trainer Blane Wood said Wednesday that Apocalyptical Jess could run next in the Oct. 20 trials for the Grade 1, $1 million Texas Classic Futurity. The finale is Nov. 10.

“If he pulls up like he has me thinking he has, we’ll probably take him to the Texas Classic at Lone Star,” Wood said. “He seems to be perfectly fine.”

Wood said Apocalyptical Jess is at Ruidoso, which closed Monday, and will move to one of two family-owned training centers in Texas.

“We’re just letting him rest, evaluating him,” Wood said.

Wood joined his father, Leo Wood, in the record books Monday. They are the first father-and-son trainers to win the All American Futurity, with Leo Wood taking the 1979 running with Pie In the Sky. Blane Wood said he was thinking about his father after Apocalyptical Jess crossed the wire.

$30,000 colts lead Okla. sale

A colt by Race Day and a colt by Pollard’s Vision brought $30,000 each to top the Carter Sales Co. yearling auction Sunday in Oklahoma City.

RA-MAX Farms purchased the Race Day colt, a halfbrother to Welder, a multiple stakes winner of $374,151. David Rodawalt purchased the Pollard’s Vision colt, a halfbrother to the stakes-placed winners For All You Know and Stratagem. Both horses were consigned by Mighty Acres as agent for separate outfits.

The sales company reported 50 of 78 yearlings on offer sold, for total receipts of $361,400. The buyback rate was 36 percent. The average was $7,228. Last year, the average was $9,137.

The Downs at Albuquerque starts 11 consecutive days of racing on Thursday, continuing through Sept. 16.