2-year-olds go two turns for first time at meet
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLEJuveniles will be prominent at Hastings on Monday. The seven-race card kicks off at 5 p.m. Pacific with a $50,000 optional maiden claimer for 2-year-olds going 3 1/2 furlongs, and the third race brings together six 2-year-old fillies running for a top claiming price of $20,000.
The third race is the first time 2-year-olds will be going around two turns at Hastings this year. The six-furlong dash is the first leg of the pick five, which has a $111,731 carryover. It is a jackpot wager, but there are no strong favorites in the sequence, so it is possible someone could take home the whole pool.
Groovy Girl and Anaamy look like the main players in the third race. However, first-time starter Texas Humor has win-early breeding on her dam’s side and has been working like she can run a bit for trainer Mark Cloutier.
An Ole Nielsen homebred, Texas Humor is out of Lost Humor, who won her first start as a 2-year-old for Cloutier in 2015. Lost Humor’s first foal to race, We Be Three, won her 2-year-old debut for trainer Steve Henson before finishing second in her next start in the $100,000 Sadie Diamond Futurity last year.
Texas Humor is by Texas Wildcatter, who is 0 for 22 with first-time starting 2-year-olds. She will break from the rail with Alex Marti riding.
Cloutier also trains Anaamy, who finished second going 3 1/2 furlongs in her only start, a maiden claimer that carried a top claiming price of $20,000. All four of her siblings are multiple winners, the best being Notice, who won the $50,000 CTHS Sales Stakes at Hastings and the $49,000 CTHS Sales Stakes at Century Downs as a 2-year-old in 2018.
◗ Tuesday’s second race also features 2-year-old fillies going around two turns in a $50,000 optional maiden claimer.
The Mel Snow-trained Drill Baby Drill should be favored in the six-furlong dash, which drew six horses. First-time starters U Did It and Tommy Too also look live.
◗ Jockey Amadeo Perez will miss at least six weeks due to injuries he received when the horse he was riding, Day Pass, fell in the third race last Monday. The injuries are not as severe as some feared when Perez was being attended to by first responders for about 45 minutes.
“It was pretty scary,” said his agent, Trapper Barroby. “Luckily nothing major, but he is going to need some time to recover.”