Before Shane’s Wonder made his debut at Parx Racing on Tuesday, Alfredo Velazquez received a stunning report from jockey Eliseo Ruiz after a morning workout. The trainer might have been prepared for a comparison to four-time stakes winner Buccherino, the undisputed star of his stable, but he was indignant when Ruiz went a step further describing the unraced colt.
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Jockey Angel Cruz has caught fire in the Mid-Atlantic, boasting a 19 percent strike rate at Laurel Park and Charles Town to begin his 2026 campaign. The pot got even sweeter in Maryland last Saturday, when the journeyman rider took center stage in the $200,000 General George and guided rising star Point Dume to a commanding gate-to-wire victory.
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Trainer Michael Moore believes Takethemoneyhoney might have run the best race of her career in the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie on Saturday at Laurel. It hurt that she did so in defeat, coming up a nose short to Passage East in a thriller.
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Knock It Off will be an odds-on favorite to win his second race from two starts when he faces no more than six foes in Friday's featured sixth race, a 3-year-old restricted first-level sprint allowance with a $125,000 claiming option that none of the entrants will run under.
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Balboa, third in the Grade 2 Remsen in December, and runner-up in the Jerome in January, will make a return visit to Aqueduct on Feb. 28 for the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes, trainer Brittany Russell said Wednesday.
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Hit Show eked out a victory Saturday over pacesetting Accelerize in the Mineshaft Stakes, his raw time of 1:42.49 for 1 1/16 miles producing a modest 92 Beyer Speed Figure. But the Mineshaft served as a mere means to an end, that being a return to the Dubai World Cup, which Hit Show upset in April.
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Haulin Ice can become the first Arkansas-bred to reach millionaire status on Friday, when the South Florida-based runner returns to her home state to defend her title in the $150,000 Downthedustyroad Breeders' Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
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An untimely fever kept Magnitude from shipping to last weekend's Saudi Cup, a change in schedule that keeps him following directly in the hoofprints of a famed predecessor.
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Kentucky Derby: Who's hot, who's not for Feb. 18, 2026.
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The latest storm in the region caused outright cancellation of the Feb. 16 card and is followed by an all-dirt program on Friday. A pick six carryover of $34,288 is up for grabs. New money is likely to exceed $150,000 on a $2 pick six that will not be too tough if Sharons Beach delivers as a popular single in race 7.
