Next Shares staying home for Kilroe Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Next Shares, who won the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland last October, will start in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on March 30 rather than travel to Keeneland in April.

Trainer Richard Baltas said on Thursday he considered sending Next Shares as part of a group of horses from his stable to Keeneland’s spring meeting, but will largely keep the team in California. He said he plans to send “three or four” to Keeneland.

Santa Anita is scheduled to resume racing on March 29 after a break of nearly four weeks because of a rash of equine fatalities this year. The track underwent inspection and refurbishment before training resumed on the main track on March 11.

Baltas said he had plans to race at Keeneland in April when plans for racing at Santa Anita “were up in the air.”

“Now, we’ll be running in a week,” he said. “It was very concerning.

“We’re here for the long term, and I think they did the right thing. The track is good and hopefully it stays that way.”

Next Shares, a 6-year-old gelding, won the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes on turf here on Jan. 5 and was a troubled seventh in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26.

The $400,000 Kilroe Mile was originally scheduled for March 9 but postponed to March 30. Because of the cancellations, there are five graded stakes scheduled for the March 30 program.