Third-place finishes in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last October and the minor Eddie Logan Stakes on Dec. 27 have led Daddy D T to a first-level optional $80,000 claimer on turf in Sunday’s sixth race at Santa Anita.
Racetracks in the U.S. are more likely to coordinate their live racing schedules to avoid overlapping post times due to the recent acquisition by Television Games Network of its only broadcast competitor, HRTV, according to officials involved in the deal.
Trainer Chad Brown’s arsenal of turf stars will increase by one with the arrival of Chilean champion Il Campione, who soon will join his barn after being purchased privately by a Lane’s End partnership.
A cooperative of racetracks and the company controlling the simulcast signals to Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park have agreed to the main pricing aspects of a new simulcast contract, but approval of the pact is being held up by a related issue affecting one of the cooperative’s members, Rosecroft Raceway, according to officials for both sides.
Santa Anita has made minor revisions to the stakes schedule for its spring-summer meeting, which runs from April 25 to June 28, raising the purses of four stakes, reducing the purses of four stakes, and moving the Grade 1 Vanity Stakes from mid-June to early May.
The $100,000 Evening Attire has undergone some revisions since it was first drawn on Feb. 13 for it scheduled running on the Presidents Day card, which was canceled because of the cold. One thing, however, remains constant: Micromanage is the horse to beat.
The manner in which each of the 11 horses in Sunday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn has handled the race’s six-day delay surely has varied, but there is one constant for handicappers. All the entrants have been stabled on the grounds, and as such, all have had to negotiate disrupted training schedules brought about by a winter storm that forced the cancellation of the Southwest last Monday.
Sunday at Gulfstream Park, exactly one year since his last start, Top Billing finally gets back to the races, in an optional $75,000 claiming race in which he can use his second-level allowance condition.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said that Daredevil, who won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes last year, will make his 3-year-old debut next Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Swale Stakes going seven furlongs.
Khozan, the half-brother to champion Royal Delta, was so impressive in his debut win last month that he landed a spot in the top 20 on Derby Watch. He makes start No. 2 on Sunday at Gulfstream Park in a first-level allowance, a one-turn mile that goes as race 5.
