HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Roaring Forties, whose only previous start against Florida-breds resulted in a wire-to-wire victory here a year ago in the $75,000 Sunshine Turf, will return to Gulfstream Park on Sunday to defend his title against six rivals. The 10-race program also will feature the post position draws for both the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational and $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Drum Roll Please, who won the Jerome Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct on Jan. 6, is off the Triple Crown trail after coming out of a Friday morning workout at Belmont Park with an injury, owner Al Gold said Friday afternoon.
Gold said following the in-company workout, which was timed in 49.55 seconds for a half-mile, Drum Roll Please was off in a hind leg and X-rays showed an apical medial sesamoid fracture of his left hind ankle. Gold said Drum Roll Please will have surgery, likely in Maryland next week, and will be sidelined until the summer.
Linda’s Gift stole the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Del Mar in November for her first stakes win, setting slow fractions and holding on to win by three-quarters of a length.
Winning in that same manner may be impossible in Sunday’s $100,000 Astra Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Santa Anita, but may not be necessary for another successful race.
“I think it has to do with pace,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “The rider knows her.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Whatever your opinion was of the incident at the quarter pole of the Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Stakes last month at Aqueduct, it cannot be argued that Antonio of Venice ran a big race to win.
The sale season continues this week with the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s winter mixed sale, which now can boast Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio among its list of graduates.
The OBS sale takes place Tuesday and Wednesday starting at noon with a total of 476 horses cataloged, including current supplements, across its various segments. The Tuesday session is designated as the preferred session, with a total of 137 broodmares and prospects and newly turned yearlings cataloged. Horses of racing age will be offered that evening, with 76 lots cataloged.
For Turf Paradise and its horsemen, the last eight months have been a roller-coaster ride.
The kind that makes you queasy, relieved to just get off.
Just after the close of last year’s meet in May, track owner Jerry Simms announced that he was getting out, and Turf would be closed. A potential buyer emerged, but then backed out after the partnership couldn’t get favorable legislation passed.
Strong Quality knows but one way to race – go to the lead and try to last. Those tactics should be effective in the $100,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds.
The other pace player in the Bradley, a 1 1/16-mile grass contest, is Brigadier General, a dirt horse who was cross-entered in the now-postponed Fifth Season at Oaklawn Park, and whose connections surely were hoping for a rain-off that’s not going to happen. Barring a surprise grass start from Brigadier General, Strong Quality should make a clear lead and prove difficult to run down.
The 64-year-old trainer Kevin Scholl never had won a stakes race until 2023. Last year alone, trainer Brad Cox won 66.
Scholl was born and raised in Blanchardville, a small town in southern Wisconsin, going on to ride the fair circuits in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. Cox was born and raised in the shadow of Churchill Downs, going on to win two Eclipse Awards as champion trainer. More divergent career arcs one would struggle to find, but it is Scholl and Cox who send out the principal players Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $150,000 Silverbulletday Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Hot Fudge had just won a third-level allowance race at Belmont Park in June, trainer Linda Rice wasn’t impressed. The filly bore out badly in the race, and Rice felt it wouldn’t be smart to go on with her through the summer.
Following several months off, Hot Fudge appears to have come back a better and stronger mare. On Dec. 1, she won another allowance and eight days later the Garland of Roses. She brings that winning form into Saturday’s $150,000 Interborough Stakes at Aqueduct.
If everyone showed their best, the Louisiana Stakes would come down to Saudi Crown and Smile Happy. But races are not run in a vacuum, and there’s no reason to believe the two best horses will produce their best race Saturday at Fair Grounds.
