After swinging for the fences and missing in the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf, De Regreso drops back into a more suitable spot Thursday in a second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming race scheduled for one mile and 70 yards over Gulfstream Park’s Tapeta surface.
Notably absent from the overflow field entered for Saturday’s Tom Benson Memorial Stakes, a turf route for older fillies and mares, was Nanda Dea, who would have been favored had she run.
A champion miler in Argentina, Nanda Dea won her North American debut last fall in a Keeneland allowance race. In her second start for trainer Ignacio Correas, she overcame significant trouble to capture the Albert Stall Memorial last month.
The road to Louisville runs through Hot Springs for the 3-year-old filly Simply Joking.
After missing an intended start on Feb. 15 in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes at Fair Grounds, Simply Joking wasn’t entered for the March 22 Fair Grounds Oaks and instead will run March 29 in the $750,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park.
Trainer Whit Beckman said on Sunday that he’ll ship Simply Joking along with the 4-year-old Honor Marie, who’s set to race for the first time since August in the restricted American Pharoah Stakes on the same card.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unraced since a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar last November, Gold Phoenix is scheduled to start in Saturday’s Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita.
The 7-year-old Gold Phoenix has performed well enough in recent works to convince trainer Phil D’Amato to aim for the $100,000 San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf.
“He’s breezed sensationally,” D’Amato said Sunday. “I’ve had four or five good five-eighths in him. For an old veteran, I haven’t seen him as sharp as he has been in these drills.”
Four of trainer Bob Baffert’s leading 3-year-olds worked at Santa Anita on Monday, including Citizen Bull, the champion 2-year-old male of 2024. They are all expected to start in leading stakes in the buildup to the Triple Crown in coming weeks.
Citizen Bull, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar in November, and the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 1, worked six furlongs in 1:12 for a likely start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5.
The 49 winners trainer Joe Sharp put up during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 meets would’ve won most recent Fair Grounds training titles, but both seasons, Fair Grounds bests for Sharp, Brad Cox won 53. Training wins this meet have been more evenly distributed among the top trainers than the local historical norm, in part because Cox this past fall opened a major string at Payson Park in Florida. Cox has run as many as 207 horses during a Fair Grounds meet; this time, he might not hit 100.
Capitol Hill, a full brother to Grade 2 Wood Memorial winner Resilience, may have found his home on a different surface.
After getting beaten by 41 lengths in his debut on dirt at Gulfstream, Capitol Hill won a 1 1/16-mile maiden race on turf by 1 1/4 lengths last Friday at Tampa Bay Downs. Capitol Hill, trained by Bill Mott, beat a heavily bet first-time starter, Uncatalyzed, from the barn of Chad Brown. The rider of Uncatalyzed, Samuel Marin, dropped his whip, but it likely didn’t make the difference between winning and losing.
After initially saying he was using the Boston Handicap at Colonial Downs as a prep for the Godolphin Mile on April 5 at Meydan for Book’em Danno, trainer Derek Ryan has changed his mind and opted to keep the Grade 1-winning New Jersey-bred home for a domestic campaign.
“It’s a little too quick back with the traveling and everything,” Ryan said Monday. “We don’t like to run back in three weeks anyway. We had it in our minds, but it’s just not the right thing to do.”
Just a Photo was just getting good when a splint bone injury took him out of the picture for the second half of his 4-year-old season.
On Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs, Just a Photo looks to get back to the winner’s circle when he returns from a 269-day layoff in a second-level allowance/optional $32,000 claiming race that serves as the feature on the nine-race card.
The first stakes race of 2025 in Ohio takes place Thursday at Mahoning Valley. The $75,000 Southern Park Stakes for Ohio-bred 3-year-old fillies gives all nine entrants a chance to record their first stakes win.
The only entrants to get a piece of a stakes previously are My Kinda Party, trained by Robert Gorham, and Lo Bug, trained by Richard Zielinski. My Kinda Party was second in the Miss Ohio Stakes last August at Thistledown, with Lo Bug a half-length behind her in third while still a maiden.
