On sheer accomplishment, the million-dollar earner Mr. Wireless stands out in the featured eighth race Thursday at Fair Grounds. He also stands little chance of winning.
Mr. Wireless is a route horse in a six-furlong sprint race, the 6-year-old gelding’s first start since May. He’s 9-2 on the morning line and from all appearances as well as the assessment of his trainer, Mr. Wireless will mainly function as a takeout reducer.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Tom Van Berg is assembling an army for the $125,000 Trail’s End at the conclusion of the Oaklawn Park meet, and one of his four soldiers eyeing the race, Indian Gulch, is entered in the seventh race on Thursday.
Trainer Jose Francisco D’Angelo scratched Hihellohowareyou out of Saturday’s $50,000 Manatee at Tampa Bay Downs for a seemingly easier and definitely more lucrative spot Thursday in a $91,000 allowance race going 6 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream Park.
Hihellohowareyou will try to snap a nine-race losing streak dating back to last May when she faces seven others in a second-level allowance for fillies and mares that serves as the feature on the nine-race card.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Sergio Morfin, who has won races at the current meetings at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos, has been given a provisional suspension by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit after one of his runners tested positive for methamphetamine after finishing second on Dec. 29 at Santa Anita.
The positive was found in a post-race test taken from Wishtheyallcouldbe.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sweet Azteca’s win in Saturday’s Grade 1, $301,000 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita has trainer Michael McCarthy and owner and breeder Pamela Ziebarth thinking of more lucrative prizes for the upstart 4-year-old filly.
On Sunday, McCarthy said Sweet Azteca will be considered for the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs on the May 4 Kentucky Derby program. The Derby City Distaff is run at seven furlongs and is worth $1 million.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After winning her maiden impressively in her 2-year-old finale, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. had high expectations when Breezero came back for her 3-year-old debut under allowance conditions earlier this winter. After turning in what he considered a subpar performance, Joseph is looking for a much improved effort when he sends Breezero out under similar conditions in Wednesday’s $59,000 feature at Gulfstream Park.
The race is for Florida-bred 3-year-old fillies at 5 1/2 furlongs over the Tapeta course.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Bold Look returns to the turf and takes a small drop in class in Wednesday’s fifth race, a competitive maiden $32,000 claiming event that looks to be one of the more bettable races on the all-claiming nine-race program at Tampa Bay Downs.
Two starts back, Bold Look finished fifth in a maiden special weight race on turf where the top four finishers were trained by Christophe Clement, Arnaud Delacour, and two runners from Chad Brown. Michael Anthony Ferraro, trainer of Bold Look, put his filly on dirt on Feb. 4, when she finished second for maiden $40,000 claiming.
PHOENIX – A few months ago the thought of another Phoenix Gold Cup might not have seemed plausible as the prospect of Turf Paradise holding another meet hung in the balance. However, the Phoenix track is in full stride and the meet’s annual marquee event, the $60,000 Gold Cup, leads a stakes quintet Thursday.
The Gold Cup, at six furlongs, drew a competitive and full field of 12 headed by Southern California raider Moose Mitchell and multiple graded stakes-placed and local stakes winner Principe Carlo. It goes as race 8 on a nine-race program.
Multiple stakes winner Snapper Sinclair was a faimilar figure in California, making three trips to the Breeders’ Cup there, in 2017, 2019, and 2021. The next time he appears on that major race day, he could be ponying runners in the Golden State.
