Trainer Shug McGaughey has every reason to get excited about Orb, who registered his second straight victory around two turns when rallying to a one-length decision over the previously undefeated Violence under jockey John Velazquez in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth.
Trainer Bob Baffert’s big horse may still be in the barn. Power Broker, unraced since a fifth-place performance in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, recently returned to the work tab and has avoided much publicity.
A bruised foot will prevent Demonic from making his stakes debut in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 9 at Santa Anita, trainer John Sadler said.
Violence, who suffered the first loss of his career when second in the Fountain of Youth Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, fractured a sesamoid bone in his right front ankle, and his racing career is in jeopardy, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday morning
Everything came together in the Risen Star, where Ive Struck a Nerve dropped back to last in a 12-horse field without ever pulling hard on new rider James Grahams’s reins. Settled and relaxed, Ive Struck a Nerve made one big run to win the Risen Star by a nose.
Dry Summer put himself into the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby on Saturday, when he turned back a bid from Show Some Magic and went on to a 1 1/2-length win in the $120,000 Mine That Bird Derby
Three-year-old stakes horses capped the 2011 – 2012 Fair Grounds racing season with a burst of insanity when 109-1 shot Hero of Order won the Louisiana Derby. Oxbow restored a measure of order winning the first 3-year-old stakes this meet, the Jan. 19 Lecomte, at a reasonable 9-2. But wackiness returned Saturday when Ive Struck a Nerve rallied from last to edge Code West in the Risen Star Stakes at odds of 135-1.
Orb rallied off an extremely fast pace to run down and then outfinish the 3-5 favorite Violence by a half-length to win the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and earn himself 50 valuable qualifying points for the 2013 Kentucky Derby.
Scratched from the Risen Star, Sunbean dominated fellow 3-year-old Louisiana-breds in a 4 3/4-length romp in the Gentilly Stakes on Saturday at the Fair Grounds.
Itsmyluckyday turned in his first workout since upsetting Eclipse Award champion Shanghai Bobby in the Grade 3 Holy Bull when he breezed an easy half-mile in 48.77 seconds at Calder on Saturday morning.
