Private Zone

When you have been in the game as long as Alfredo Velazquez, nobody has to tell you quite how long a journey divides slop-splattered defeat at Aqueduct on the first day of the year from Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. By the same token, however, the length of perspective opened by six decades on the racetrack gives persuasive substance to the Parx stalwart's excitement over Smarten Up (American Freedom), who graduated from a nine-length maiden romp at his home track to mount a storming finish for second...

Multiple Grade I-winning multimillionaire Private Zone (Macho Uno) has come out of his 3 3/4-length GI Forego S. victory well, according to trainer Jorge Navarro. "The horse is doing super today," Navarro noted. "I was pretty amazed at the way he came back from the race and how quick he cooled out. I can't believe how he came back; it's really good. He looked like he did everything so easy and he wasn't used. I am very pleased and happy with him." Although the bay earned a berth into the...