Santa Anita: Goldencents returns to work tab

ARCADIA, Calif. - Goldencents, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last November, has resumed serious training.

Thursday at Santa Anita, Goldencents breezed a half-mile in 53.80 seconds, his first work of the year. Trainer Doug O’Neill said he has not chosen a comeback race for Goldencents, who has not started since finishing seventh in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap at Aqueduct in November.

“He’s back in the game,” O’Neill said. “I think we’re still four or five works from planning something. We’ll take our time.”

Goldencents has won 5 of 13 starts and earned $1,994,000. He won the Santa Anita Derby and was 17th in the Kentucky Derby last year.

Apprentice set to return

Apprentice jockey Gonzalo Nicolas will return to riding Thursday after recovering from a back injury suffered in a spill Jan. 2, according to his agent, Vince DeGregory.

Nicolas, who began riding in 2013 and has 25 career wins, was unseated when his mount fell in early stretch of a maiden claimer for sprinters. Nicolas was expected to be absent for four to six weeks, but the recovery took slightly longer.

The first win for Nicolas, 23, came at Los Alamitos last May, and he rode at Del Mar, Santa Anita, and Hollywood Park in the second half of 2013. Nicolas had eight wins last year at the Hollywood Park autumn meeting, where he was the leading apprentice jockey.

Nicolas claims a seven-pound allowance. DeGregory said that Nicolas has an apprentice claim through Aug. 16, but that paperwork would be filed to extend the term into the fall because of his recent absence.