When Stolen Treasure won a maiden race at a mile on turf on Dec. 1 at Del Mar, trainer Ed Freeman told owner and breeder Paul Reddam he had a prospect for the Snow Chief Stakes for statebreds at Santa Anita in the spring.
“He told me, ‘You better do something between now and then,’ ” Freeman recalled Friday.
The opportunity has arrived quickly. Stolen Treasure will make his stakes debut in Sunday’s $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for statebred 2-year-olds at a mile at Los Alamitos.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – An issue that turned out to be minor forced trainer Butch Reid to scratch Disco Ebo from last weekend’s $120,000 Garland of Roses Stakes at Aqueduct. Fortunately, Disco Ebo is eligible for a multi-conditioned allowance race here Sunday that serves as the feature on Aqueduct’s nine-race card.
Disco Ebo is eligible for this race because none of her four wins this year yielded at least $60,000 in purse money.
“I didn’t realize she was eligible,” Reid said Friday. “[The racing office] called me up and here we are.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – J P Hellish has been razor-sharp, sometimes too sharp, since returning from a layoff in the summer. He should be favored in the featured conditioned allowance route with a $50,000 to $47,500 claiming option on Sunday’s closing-day card at Woodbine.
J P Hellish was turned over to trainer Marty Drexler after his form tailed off last spring at Gulfstream Park. The durable 7-year-old resurfaced in a $25,000 claimer here Aug. 11 and promptly wired the field in an 11-length tally with a career-high 95 Beyer Speed Figure.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Danny Gargan won the most prestigious race for 2-year-olds run at the Aqueduct fall meet when Dornoch captured the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen on Dec. 2. Saturday, Gargan will try to win the richest race offered for 2-year-olds at the meet when he sends out Brick Ambush in the $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Series.
The seven-furlong race is restricted to progeny of New York-based stallions. Brick Ambush is one of five sons of Laoban, who was once a New York-based stallion before moving to Kentucky. In May 2021, he died suddenly.
With the name comes built-in hype.
Coach Prime, the electrifying winner of a maiden race at Del Mar last month, will have his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity, very much at the center of the $200,000 race for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.
Coach Prime is one of three runners in the six-horse field trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who has won the Los Alamitos Futurity seven of the last nine years. Baffert also starts Wine Me Up, who was second in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita in October, and the maiden race winner Wynstock.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In 2021, trainer David Donk transferred the 2-year-old Geno from the turf to the dirt and he upset the $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Series at odds of 8-1.
Saturday, Donk will try a similar feat when he transfers the 2-year-old filly Artemis Girl from the turf to the dirt for the $500,000 Fifth Avenue division of the NYSS, a race restricted to female progeny of New York-based stallions.
Among the 12 runners in the main body of the field for Saturday night’s $125,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway Park, six of them are stakes winners at the Florence, Ky., track – including reigning Kentucky Cup Classic winner Wolfie’s Dynaghost and two winners of the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby.
The clash of this sextet, plus some other accomplished runners, makes for an intriguing lineup in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up on the Tapeta.
