ARCADIA, Calif. – Straight No Chaser, winner of the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint at Pimlico last spring with a 107 Beyer Speed Figure, is nominated to the $100,000 Kona Gold Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, but is likely to ship out of town for his comeback. Straight No Chaser has not started since he won the Maryland Sprint by more than seven lengths.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tapalo, the Southern California-based stakes-placed 3-year-old, could be traveling this spring. Trainer John Sadler said the New York-bred will be considered for statebred stakes this spring and summer. It was reported earlier that the Mark Glatt-trained California-based Ball Don’t Lie also will look toward the New York-bred stakes program.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It turns out Kopion had an alibi for finishing a distant fourth in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks on April 6. Kopion, winner of the Grade 3 seven-furlong Santa Ynez and runner-up in the Grade 3 Las Virgenes at one mile, lost the Santa Anita Oaks by 16 lengths as the 2.30-1 second choice.
Trainer Richard Mandella said Kopion “came out of the race and appeared perfectly sound, but we scanned her and her shin bones lit up. They were aching a little bit, remodeling, growing-up stuff.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Super Shine’s runner-up U.S. debut in the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes on April 21 gives trainer Phil D’Amato a top older dirt female for spring, while D’Amato-trained Desert Dawn will get a break following her third-place finish as the odds-on favorite.
Breeding can be a mysterious game, and while there were high hopes for the now-retired Olivier, the full brother to 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline, he didn’t deliver, finishing unplaced in three starts.
“It became obvious, once he was in training, that he wasn’t his brother,” said Jane Lyon, who bred the 4-year-old Tapit gelding in the name of her Summer Wind Equine, and who raced him with partners WinStar Farm and Siena Farm.
WHO’S HOT
Form prevailed in major Kentucky Derby preps this season – 16 of the last 17 graded stakes were won by the first or second favorite. Turnover has been minimal, and the final Derby Watch prior to the Derby draw on Saturday is similar to the first Derby Watch. Eight of the top 12 candidates listed on the Feb. 9 Derby Watch remain on the list; 11 of 20 overall.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland April horses of racing age sale is set for Friday night. What is not quite set is the final catalog – and alongside it, the makeup of the buying bench.
Keeneland released an initial catalog of 111 entries earlier this month for the sale, which follows the closing-day card of the spring race meet. First post on the card has been moved up to 12:30 p.m. to accommodate the sale; the final race is scheduled to go off at 5:09 p.m., with the sale set to begin at 6:30 p.m.
Joe Catanese was humbled when learning his old friend, trainer Larry Bates, had stayed true to his word last year and had bequeathed him his two top horses, Poiema and Trumpets.
The two fillies are now the stars of Catanese’s modest stable, the former slated to make her next start in an overnight handicap here Saturday, the latter showing off her brilliant speed once again to prove a popular and easy winner of a statebred allowance race earlier this month.
The best race of Bourbon Heist’s 24-race career, conceded trainer Ian Wilkes, came when Bourbon Heist won a first-level seven-furlong allowance at Keeneland last April. The 5-year-old gelding won by 6 1/2 lengths and earned a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure.
Wilkes, who has trained a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Fort Larned, is a capable, learned, veteran trainer. But even a novice would be inclined to try and find a seven-furlong Keeneland allowance race as the ideal landing spot for Bourbon Heist.
