HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Castle Chaos will scratch from Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile and instead run in Saturday’s $150,000 Stymie Stakes at Aqueduct.
Castle Chaos is coming out of a nose defeat to Tumbarumba in the Grade 3 Fred Hooper at Gulfstream on Jan. 27. Prior to that, he finished third, behind Hoist the Gold and Senor Buscador in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.
Castle Chaos had drawn the rail for the Gulfstream Park Mile.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Michael Yates will learn more about his improving 3-year-old Frankie’s Empire and his 3-year-old filly Fiona’s Magic when they run in graded stakes Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
Frankie’s Empire, who won the seven-furlong Swale Stakes in his first start for Yates, will take on Dornoch and Locked in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes while Fiona’s Magic, runner-up in the Grade 3 Forward Gal, takes on last year’s 2-year-old filly champion Just F Y I in the Grade 2, $200,000 Davona Dale.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Friday’s eagerly anticipated entry-level allowance event that was to match exciting maiden winners Speak Easy and Conquest Warrior in race written as a potential prep for the $1 million Florida Derby here on March 30 took a major twist early Thursday when the connections of Speak Easy announced their attention to scratch from the race to run the following afternoon in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Plans for Woodcourt, who ran fourth in the Rebel on Saturday after breaking from post 12, are to be determined, trainer Cipriano Contreras said Tuesday.
“I really don’t know what we’re going to do next,” he said. “We’ll see.”
Contreras said Woodcourt will be considered for the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby on March 30, but also the $200,000 Hot Springs, a one-mile race for 3-year-olds here March 23.
Harr nears return
A brother act from Florida could invade Oaklawn for next month’s Racing Festival of the South.
Octane, a multiple stakes winner who shipped in to win the Grade 3, $600,000 Razorback here Saturday, and Gatsby, his stakes-winning full brother, are being considered for some local races, said Brian Cohen, president of their breeder and owner, Arindel.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Last Samurai, a $2.2 million earner who won two-thirds of the handicap series last season at Oaklawn Park, is back on the work tab in Arkansas.
He is gearing up for a 6-year-old campaign, but there is not a specific target for his return, trainer Eddie Milligan Jr. said Tuesday.
“I worked him a half-mile last weekend and he handled it well,” Milligan said. “We’re moving forward.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tessuto won his first start at a mile in a maiden race at Santa Anita last Sunday in a manner that left trainer George Papaprodromou considering a start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 6.
After finishing third in two maiden races for sprinters earlier this winter, Tessuto closed from third in a field of six to win by 2 1/2 lengths on Sunday. Ridden by Umberto Rispoli, Tessuto was timed in 1:37.90 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 79.
The $750,000 Santa Anita Derby is run at 1 1/8 miles.
“We may give it a shot,” Papaprodromou said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stakes-placed Tapalo is the latest California 3-year-old targeting an out-of-state stakes. Stronghold won in New Mexico, Slider runs Saturday in New York, and now Tapalo is heading to Kentucky for the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks on March 23 at Turfway Park.
John Sadler trains Tapalo, the better-than-looked runner-up in the El Camino Real Derby on Feb. 10 at Golden Gate Fields. Both tracks, Turfway and Golden Gate, have synthetic surfaces.
Nysos, the undefeated 3-year-old colt trained by Bob Baffert, has been made the 4-1 morning-line favorite for the first Preakness Stakes Future Wager pool, which opens Thursday.
Like other horses trained by Baffert, Nysos is unable to run in the Kentucky Derby this year due to a ban placed on Baffert by Churchill Downs. Baffert is expected to target the Preakness with his top 3-year-olds this year, as he did last year, when he won the second leg of the Triple Crown with National Treasure.
