INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Last October, Comma to the Top won the minor Big Bear Handicap on a weekday at the Santa Anita autumn meeting. This fall, there is a much greater goal for the 5-year-old gelding.
After Comma to the Top won Monday’s $100,250 Los Angeles Handicap for the ninth stakes win of his career, trainer Peter Miller said the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita in November is a long-term goal.
“You’ve got to dream,” he said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Comma to the Top lost a fellow pacesetter for Monday’s $100,250 Los Angeles Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park when Fast Bullet was scratched the morning of the race because of illness.
Comma to the Top lost the rest of his competition in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap shortly after the start.
Ridden by Edwin Maldonado, Comma to the Top took the lead a few strides into the six-furlong race and never was troubled, winning the ninth stakes of his career by 1 1/4 lengths.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A speed duel between Fast Bullet and Comma to the Top in Monday’s $100,000 Los Angeles Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park may be unavoidable and will be a key factor in how handicappers assess the six-furlong race.
Both 5-year-olds are best when racing on the lead early and could set a blazing pace in the Grade 3 race.
“I’m not going to change his style,” said Bob Baffert, who trains Fast Bullet. “He just goes. He’s fast.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Kentucky Derby is not the end of the line.
Occasionally, the first Saturday in May is a mere glitch. For some horses, the best is still ahead.
Proof is offered Saturday at Betfair Hollywood Park, where survivors from the 2011 and 2012 Derby fields resume campaigns as leading contenders in two stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 2013 season has not gone the way trainer Richard Mandella expected with Jimmy Creed, the winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes here Dec. 26.
Mandella hoped to run Jimmy Creed in the Strub Stakes in February and maybe the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 2. A persistent wintertime cough ended that.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – One day after his courageous nose victory over Saturday’s Charm in the Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct, Comma to the Top was flown to south Florida on Sunday morning. But there are no plans to run him in Saturday’s Gulfstream Park Handicap.
“Definitely not,” trainer Peter Miller said Monday morning.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Comma to the Top was caught late in last Saturday’s San Carlos at Santa Anita, and he was caught late once again in the Tom Fool Handicap on Saturday at Aqueduct. Only this time, the jet-setting Comma to the Top battled back to win by a nose over Saturday’s Charm, thereby putting an exclamation point on a busy week.
Comma to the Top flashed his California speed to grab the early lead while kept well out in the track by Joel Rosario, and ran the first quarter in a manageable 22.92 seconds while pressed by Head Heart Hoof.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though most of his success has come around two turns, Johannesburg Smile showed a new dimension when he finished a good second in the Grade 3 Toboggan at six furlongs last month.
Saturday, Johannesburg Smile will sprint again when he meets nine rivals in the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap going six furlongs at Aqueduct.
With a seeming abundance of speed signed up for the Tom Fool – including California shipper Comma to the Top – Johannesburg Smile should get plenty of pace in which to close under John Velazquez.
For those keeping score at home, and you know who you are, the new Kentucky Derby eligibility system kicks into high gear Saturday when the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream and the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds each offers 85 points spread across the first four finishers in a 50-20-10-5 formula that guarantees howls of righteous protest when some poor horse is beaten a dirty nose for the win.
