ARCADIA, Calif. – El Potente had a good year as a 4-year-old in 2023, winning three races before being given a nearly 10-month layoff that ended last June. El Potente won his comeback, foreshadowing his recent performances.
On Saturday, El Potente won his graded stakes debut in his 14th start in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita. Trainer Dan Blacker credits two elements for the improvement.
“It’s been patience and the synthetic track,” he said.
Degree of Risk doesn’t win often, but that doesn’t make him much different from the horses he faces in Thursday’s second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming feature at Gulfstream Park. What Degree of Risk does have going for him however, is a recent run of races that appear to his best from a speed-figure standpoint.
A repeat of his recent runs and a turnback to one mile may be what Degree of Risk needs to propel him back to the winner’s circle.
It would be fair to say the jockey-trainer team of Jose Ortiz and Cherie DeVaux has done well in turf races this Fair Grounds meet.
The two have teamed up with 13 Fair Grounds grass starters, and eight have won. A bettor who played all of them to win would have nearly doubled their money.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Holy Bull winner Burnham Square and the exciting prospect River Thames are two of four 3-year-olds who competed here Saturday who could possibly return in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 1 or await the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 29.
Poster, undefeated winner of the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct in December, will make his 3-year-old debut in Saturday’s $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Originally considered for the $250,000 Withers at Aqueduct last Saturday, Poster’s plan B became the Sam Davis when he missed some training time due to winter weather in Florence, Ky., where he was based at Turfway Park.
In 2022, just four Thoroughbred foals were born in North Carolina, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. One of those is Volleyballprincess, who won the Ruthless Stakes for 3-year-old fillies last Saturday at Aqueduct.
Multiple stakes winner and prominent broodmare Miss Macy Sue died recently, at age 22 at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky, where she was boarded for Albaugh Family Stables. The mare’s legacy lives on through two prominent sons at stud in Kentucky – both of whom are represented on this year’s Kentucky Derby trail.
Chasing Liberty won the $100,000 Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile on the undercard of the Houston Ladies Classic last Saturday. It was his third stakes win following the National Thoroughbred League Juvenile Sprint on Sept. 1 at Kentucky Downs and the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes in his prior start Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Manny Franco was aboard for the Bob Bork.
Recharge is recharging at her base of Sam Houston Race Park following her win in the track’s Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic last Saturday.
“That was significant,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “We had targeted that – got the [prep] race in at Houston, let them come to her.
“We’ll graze her and pet on her for a little while now.”
