HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday that Fierceness came out of his record-setting 13 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby in good order while continuing to marvel at the scope of the reigning juvenile champion male’s performance, which more than made amends for his disappointing third-place finish in the Grade 3 Holy Bull eight weeks earlier.
Santiago Gonzalez is booked to ride two of the nine races Thursday at Santa Anita, less than a week after he was dramatically unseated when his mount appeared to slip in a turf race.
Gonzalez was briefly hospitalized last Friday for precautionary tests and was released hours later, according to his agent, Mike Ciani.
Gonzalez was racing just behind the leaders on the turn when his mount, She’s a Joker, lost her footing. She’s a Joker unseated Gonzalez who fell heavily. The filly was walked off the track and was unhurt, trainer Peter Miller said in a text message Sunday.
Two River Over’s upset win in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai on Saturday capped a remarkable nine-month span that began when the gelding was claimed for a mere $30,000 at Ellis Park last June.
Long before Two Rivers Over won the $1 million Godolphin Mile, the claim had turned into a profitable investment for co-owners Todd Cady and Ty Leatherman. In four starts last year after being claimed, Two Rivers Over earned $252,500, including a payday of $176,400 for a win in the $300,000 Zia Park Derby in New Mexico last November.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Kertez, winner of the Grade 2 Pan American, and McKulick, winner of the Grade 3 Orchid Stakes, will both likely make their next starts at Aqueduct in May, their trainers indicated.
Christophe Clement, trainer of Kertez and Pan Am third-place finisher Tawny Port, said both will be aimed at the Grade 2, $400,000 Man o’ War on May 11. Trainer Chad Brown said McKulick will likely target the Grade 3, $200,000 Sheepshead Bay at Aqueduct on May 3.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Power Squeeze doesn’t get a lot of respect at the windows, but all she seems to do is win.
Following her 11-1 upset in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks, Power Squeeze will bring a four-race winning streak to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Oaks on May 3. Since winning a one-mile maiden race last October at Delaware Park, Power Squeeze has won the Cash Run at Gulfstream and the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay before her one-length victory over odds-on favorite Ways and Means in the Gulfstream Oaks.
Los Alamitos has canceled its Saturday evening program of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds because of a forecast of extensive rain.
The decision was announced on Friday, a day after Santa Anita canceled racing on Saturday and Sunday for the same reason.
Los Alamitos did not have a Sunday program scheduled because of Easter.
Saturday’s eight-race program included five 220-yard maiden races for 2-year-olds that were designed as prep races for time trials for the Robert Adair Kindergarten Fuuturity on April 21. The final will be run in May.
Trainer John Shirreffs has won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby three times since 2007, and has a potential for a fourth if Mc Vay scores an upset in the $750,000 race on April 6.
A win by Mc Vay would be unique, a victory by a maiden in California’s leading race for 3-year-olds.
Mc Vay, owned by Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable, was a well-beaten third in his last start, the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on March 3.
INDIANTOWN, Fla. – Hard to Justify, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, is being pointed to the Grade 2, $600,000 Edgewood at Churchill Downs on the May 3 Kentucky Oaks undercard. On Friday at Payson Park, Hard to Justify worked a half-mile in 48.98 seconds over the main track. It was her fifth work since getting started just a hair late following a freshening.
“She’s training great, she’s taken another step forward, a little stronger this year,” Brown said. “She’s training like an older horse, really.”
INDIANTOWN, Fla. – Trainer Chad Brown said Tuscan Gold, third in the March 24 Louisiana Derby, will be pointed to the Preakness on May 18, trainer Chad Brown.
Tuscan Gold, who won his first two starts, did not have the smoothest of trips when third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Catching Freedom in the Louisiana Derby. He earned only 25 qualifying points to the May 4 Kentucky Derby, unlikely to be enough to get into the Derby field.
INDIANTOWN, Fla. – Deterministic, the Grade 3 Gotham winner, completed preparations for next Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct by working five furlongs in 1:01.48 Friday morning at Payson Park, a training center about 90 minutes north of Gulfstream Park.
