Autrey to increase presence

ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Cody Autrey sent 15 horses to California on Thursday, and plans to have as many 30 runners racing in the state through late November, he said on Friday.

Autrey, 34, had a stable in California from June to late September last year, winning with 6 of 54 starters. He won with 5 of 32 runners at Del Mar, and finished third in the Best Pal Stakes with Guns Loaded.

Autrey said 12 horses will be arriving in California in the next week, including seven 2-year-olds bought in recent days at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. sale of 2-year-olds in training. The stable will be based at Los Alamitos.

“We’ll have 12 or 13 2-year-olds,” Autrey said. “We’ll have about the same number of 3-year-olds and older horses.”

Autrey said he will bring a group of claiming-level horses “that will help California.”

Last year, Autrey had nine horses claimed from him during the Del Mar meeting. He said he anticipates having runners during the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting that began on Friday. Last year, Autrey was winless with 18 runners at the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting.

“We ran horses last year at Hollywood Park to get the horses acclimated,” Autrey said. “This year, we’ll stay until the end of the second Del Mar meeting.”

Autrey had one win from four starters at the Barretts Sales and Racing meeting at Fairplex Park last September. Del Mar runs a November meeting this year, through Nov. 30. The Santa Anita autumn meeting will be run from late September to Nov. 1.

Autrey’s stable of horses will include Guns Loaded, who was sixth in the Bachelor Stakes at Oaklawn Park on April 11 in his last start, and Tanzanite Cat, who won the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park in January. He was eighth in the Sunland Park Derby on March 23.