OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Saddle Up Jessie wheels back on two weeks’ rest in an attempt to win a second straight stakes in Saturday’s $150,000 Ladies at Aqueduct going 1 1/8 miles on dirt. The Kentucky-bred daughter of More Than Ready hopes to increase her value before she is scheduled to sell Tuesday at Keeneland’s January horses of all ages sale.
Sunlit Song has been a constant force on the Texas racing scene for years and his presence in Friday night’s seventh race at Sam Houston Race Park is one of the highlights of the meet’s season opener. Sam Houston’s meet will extend for 43 dates, through April 7.
Sunlit Song is an 18-time winner who has earned more than $700,000. The 9-year-old has earned championship titles from the Texas Thoroughbred Association and is coming off his second win in Oklahoma’s richest offering for turf runners, the Remington Park Green.
Sunland Park opens its meet Friday with notable changes to its racing calendar and stakes schedule that places both the $100,000 New Mexico State Racing Commission Handicap and $65,000 KLAQ Handicap on the first card of the 55-date season. The meet runs through April 7.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Jimmy Ferraro was asked about the recent but heretofore unseen consistency from his mare Icy Reply.
“Check out her dam on Equibase and you’ll get your answer,” Ferraro said. “I’d like to take the credit for it, but I think it’s in her genes.”
Icy Reply, by Keen Ice, is out of the Ohio-bred dam Pay the Man, who churned out $1 million in earnings by virtue of a 27-11-9 record from 76 career starts. Her best season came at age 7, when Pay the Man won six consecutive races, five stakes.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Karl Broberg is hoping the pace is right for Gunflash in Friday’s ninth race at Oaklawn Park.
The first-level allowance sprint is for 4-year-olds and up at six furlongs. Cristian Torres has the mount, one race after he teams with leading contender Aunt Becca in a second-level allowance sprint for fillies and mares that also drew stakes winners Verylittlecents, Lover Girl, and Tolonda.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Gulfstream Park Championship meet is in full swing heading into the second month of the season with the quality of the racing beginning to improve on a daily basis. A case in point is Friday’s 10-race card that features a pair of allowance races, one for up-and-coming 3-year-olds around two turns on the main track that could produce a candidate or two for upcoming races on the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby trails along with a five-furlong dash on turf highlighted by the return of three-time stakes winner Carotari.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A maiden race Friday at Santa Anita offers a fresh start for one of last season’s most highly regarded juvenile fillies, although Grade 1-placed dropper Gate to Paradise is hardly a standout in her first start at age 3.
A half-dozen maiden fillies entered race 6, a dirt mile that precedes a turf sprint for California-bred allowance fillies and mares. Last-out runner-up Song of Shadows faces Queen of Pompeii in the allowance; Gate to Paradise faces five rivals in the most interesting race on the card.
Antonio of Venice, winner of the roughly run $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Series on Dec. 16, returned to the work tab Sunday, breezing a half-mile in 50.81 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.
Trainer Rudy Rodriguez said he has no immediate plans for Antonio of Venice, who would be eligible for stakes in January such as the $100,000 Rego Park for New York-breds going 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 21 or the $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield going six furlongs on Jan. 27.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The phone rang and that’s all it did. Calls were not returned. When the television was on, it was not tuned to horse racing programs.
In early October, California jockey Drayden Van Dyke walked away from racing at a time when mental aspects of the sport and personal issues had become overwhelming.
After a decade of riding with minimal interruption, Van Dyke, 29, stopped. He needed time for himself.
