Hollywood Park notes: Teddy's Promise nearing start of broodmare career

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Ron Ellis will be saying good-bye soon to one of his stable stars, the sprint mare Teddy’s Promise, who will become a broodmare next spring. She will race at least once more and no more than twice, beginning with the $100,000 Playa Del Rey Stakes going six furlongs at Hollywood Park on Dec. 15.

Teddy’s Promise most recently finished eighth of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, which ended a streak of seven straight in-the-money finishes following an eighth-place finish in last year’s BC Filly and Mare Sprint. Teddy’s Promise is a Grade 1 winner, having captured the La Brea at Santa Anita in December 2011.

Teddy’s Promise is the defending winner of the Santa Monica at Santa Anita. Ellis said the Santa Monica would be the final start for Teddy’s Promise, but only if she does well enough in the Playa Del Rey to keep going.

“If she wins that, we’d look at the Santa Monica,” he said. “But at the most, she’ll have two more starts. She came out of the Breeders’ Cup fine, and she’s been doing great since.”

The Santa Monica is usually held in late January, although Santa Anita has yet to release a stakes schedule for the upcoming winter meeting, which opens Dec. 26.

Former outrider Jerry Davis dead

Jerry Davis, a popular outrider on this circuit and the grandfather of jockey Brian Pedroza, died earlier this month in Oklahoma from complications of emphysema. He was 79.

Davis was an outrider at all Southern California tracks for 25 years before retiring in 1996. Previously, he was a jockey and a rodeo cowboy. In the 1950s, Davis rode Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos, often for trainer Farrell Jones when Jones was working with that breed.
No services are planned, according to his former wife Donna Davis.

Davis is survived by four children and several grandchildren, including Pedroza.

◗ Cyclometer, Mobilized, and Rousing Sermon are among the older horses who were expected to be entered Thursday for the $100,000 On Trust Handicap, a 7 1/2-furlong race for older California-breds to be run Sunday.

◗ Private Zone, preparing for a start in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 30, worked five furlongs in 59 seconds Wednesday morning at Santa Anita. Private Zone most recently was 10th of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, but he won the Grade 1 Vosburgh in his prior start.

◗ Fiftyshadesofhay, second in the Grade 1 Alabama this summer to Princess of Sylmar, is going to return to New York for the Grade 3, $400,000 Comely on the Cigar Mile undercard, according to trainer Bob Baffert. Fiftyshadesofhay was third most recently in the Grade 2 Indiana Oaks.