Triple Crown winner Justify, coming off a breakout season at stud, has already recorded his first graded stakes winner of 2024 and appears lined up for continued success with a strong group of 3-year-olds coming into this year, a well-bred group of 2-year-olds, and a strong book of mares committed to him for the upcoming breeding season.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Richard Baltas had a runner in the winner’s circle for the first time in 19 months, and the first time in California in nearly 21 months, on Saturday at Santa Anita.
Baltas completed a one-year suspension in December for violations related the administration of raceday supplements in the spring of 2022. Baltas reformed a stable in December, had the first runner of his comeback later that month and won a $32,000 claimer on turf with Flavius on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – By Thanksgiving weekend a few months ago, Balladeer was a tired gelding. He could only manage a fourth in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup in his second start of November and his 11th start of 2023.
“We ran him too much, with the Breeders’ Cup and all that,” trainer George Papaprodromou reflected last weekend.
A 5-year-old, Balladeer had a brief rest in December before resuming training in advance of his 2024 debut in Saturday’s Grade 3 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita.
A group of Northern California-based owners, breeders, and trainers were urged by officials with the California State Fair in Sacramento on Friday to present elaborate details in February for a proposed Thoroughbred race meeting at the venue to begin as soon as late September.
The proposed race meeting would replace Golden Gate Fields as Northern California’s primary racing venue. Golden Gate Fields is scheduled to close in June.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A trio of starter allowance/optional-claiming races – two on Tapeta, one on turf – close out the Thursday program at Gulfstream Park, a nine-race offering where just one race is carded for dirt.
Race 7, at five furlongs on Tapeta, is for 3-year-old fillies who have started for a claiming price of $35,000 or less or are in for $35,000. This looks to be a two-horse affair between Art Show Lady, trained by Jose D’Angelo, and Warda, sent out by Eddie Plesa Jr.
PHOENIX – Trainer Justin Evans appears to have a strong one-two punch for Thursday’s $60,000 Jeff and Jack Coady Sr. Stakes at Turf Paradise in the form of Beyond Awesome and Tiz a Macho Girl. Nine other fillies and mares are entered in the six-furlong sprint.
PHOENIX – Basically given up for dead last summer after a prospective buyer backed out, Turf Paradise is ready to make a comeback. A 57-day meet has been approved, and after scrambling to get its ducks in a row, the Phoenix track will rise from the ashes on Monday.
The track is still owned by Jerry Simms after another potential sale, which materialized in September, collapsed just a few weeks ago.
The meet is scheduled to run through May 4, the date of the Kentucky Derby, with live racing on a Monday-through-Thursday basis.
Sumter went from winning two stakes as a 3-year-old in 2022 to going winless in six starts in 2023, including four appearances in graded stakes.
Sumter’s 5-year-old season begins at an easier level on Sunday at Santa Anita in the $100,000 Clocker’s Corner Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.
The Clocker’s Corner, restricted to non-winners of a graded stakes since Jan. 1, 2023, is Sumter’s first start since a fourth-place finish at 19-1 in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar on Nov. 25.
The only four times Rotknee has competed in a New York-bred stakes, he won. That’s a trend trainer Mike Maker hopes continues Sunday when Rotknee returns to statebred stakes company in the $100,000 Say Florida Sandy at Aqueduct.
Rotknee, a son of Runhappy, won the Damon Runyon at 2, the Mike Lee and Ontario County at 3, and the Hudson Stakes at 4. Rotknee has made his last two starts in open company, finishing third behind Bold Journey in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight and second to that same rival in the Gravesend Stakes.
