Trainer Brendan Walsh won his first classic race when Pretty Mischievous captured the Kentucky Oaks last year, and when the filly Intricate launches her 3-year-old campaign Saturday at Fair Grounds, Walsh has good reason to hope she, too, can take him to the Oaks.
Trainer Fernando Abreu has won four races from his first nine starters in February at Gulfstream Park, a run he hopes to continue Thursday when he sends out Fly Right in a maiden special weight race for older males scheduled for 7 1/2 furlongs on turf that is the richest race on the nine-race program.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Beaten in a pair of two-turn races in their last appearances, the 4-year-old colts Reiquist and Matanzas Creek will have their first starts of 2024 for trainer Tim Yakteen in allowance races on turf and dirt for sprinters at Santa Anita on Thursday.
The nine-race program, which begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific, is the start of a five-day race week through Monday, the longest of the winter-spring meeting that began Dec. 26 and ends June 16.
PHOENIX – A couple of intimidating Southern California shippers and a couple of locals who adore the Turf Paradise main track are among eight entered in Thursday’s $60,000 Walter R. Cluer Memorial. Named for the track’s founder, the mile race for 4-year-olds and up goes as race 7.
Oeuvre has won races at five different venues, but the mare has done much of her best work at Fair Grounds. She won all three of her starts during the 2022-23 Fair Grounds meet, ran her local record to 4 for 4 with a Jan. 6 stakes win, and has a strong chance to repeat Tuesday in the $100,000 Mardi Gras Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Coppa Girl has struggled to clear the first-level allowance condition, going winless in five tries since winning her maiden last summer at Ellis Park.
In what looks to be a now-or-never spot for her, Coppa Girl heads an eight-horse field of fillies and mares entered Sunday in a first-level allowance-optional $50,000 claiming event going 1 1/8 miles that serves as the feature on Aqueduct’s nine-race card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Stone Silent showed a new dimension when harnessing her abundant early speed and rallying to a 1 3/4-length victory over Choose Joy in the Abundantia Stakes here to close out her 2023 campaign. And she’ll likely try to apply similar strategy in a field loaded with speed when launching her 2024 campaign in Sunday’s $100,000 Ladies Turf Sprint at Gulfstream Park.
Two of the fastest maiden winners from the 2022-23 Fair Grounds meet, Bo Cruz and Banishing, hook up in the featured sixth race Monday at Fair Grounds, but the pair of talented 4-year-olds must deal with the sharp Louisiana-bred 6-year-old Behemah Star.
The featured sixth race, for older horses at one mile and 70 yards, is carded for second-level allowance horses or $50,000 claimers and drew a solid field of eight. The Fair Grounds racing schedule shifts this week to accommodate Mardi Gras, with no racing Sunday but cards on Monday and Tuesday.
