Santa Anita: Nicolas gets apprentice extension

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Gonzalo Nicolas has been granted a 69-day extension of his apprentice claim after missing more than two months because of injury earlier this year. Nicolas, 23, returned to riding Friday for the first time since suffering a back injury in a spill Jan. 2.

Santa Anita stewards issued a ruling Thursday stating that Nicolas can ride as an apprentice until Oct. 24 or until he has ridden his 40th winner, whichever occurs later. Through Friday, Nicolas had 25 wins.

Nicolas was the leading apprentice at the Hollywood Park autumn meeting last year.

A Jealous Woman retired

A Jealous Woman, a two-time stakes winner who won 8 of 25 starts from 2009 until last summer, has been retired and will be bred to Ghostzapper.

Eddie Meza, the Santa Anita chaplain and assistant trainer for his wife, Francis, said Friday that A Jealous Woman was sent to Kentucky earlier this year to be bred. An 8-year-old mare by Muqtarib, A Jealous Woman finished eighth in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Del Mar last September in her final start.

Owned at the end of her career by Three Cent Stable and Niles Dickey, A Jealous Woman won two stakes at Santa Anita – the Swingtime Stakes in October 2012 and the Megahertz Stakes in January 2013. She was second in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at Santa Anita in November 2012.