HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Seven juvenile fillies whose connections are hoping can move on to bigger and better things upon turning 3 in less than a month will try to take an important step forward when squaring off at 6 1/2 furlongs under entry-level allowance and optional-claiming conditions in the ninth of 10 races Thursday at Gulfstream Park.
Joe Orseno acknowledges the 7-year-old mare Tracy Ann’s Legacy may be a step slower at this stage of her career, but he’s hoping a brief freshening and a return to her favorite surface can bring her back to form in Wednesday’s second-level allowance/optional $32,000 claiming event scheduled for five furlongs over the Tampa Bay Downs turf.
Tracy Ann’s Legacy, a 7-year-old daughter of Shackleford, has four wins and two seconds sprinting on turf at Tampa.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Javier Castellano has dropped his appeal of a three-day suspension handed him by the New York stewards and will sit out Thursday through Saturday.
Castellano was given the suspension for his ride on Sterling Silver, who crossed the wire first in the Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom Stakes on Oct. 1, but was deemed to have caused interference with the third-place finisher Caramel Swirl, who was elevated from third to first. Jose Lezcano, aboard the runner-up Headland, who was disqualified from second and placed third, has already served a three-day suspension.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Parx-based trainer Butch Reid won two stakes at Aqueduct over the weekend and he plans to try and win a few more over the next month.
On Sunday, Morning Matcha won the $125,000 Statue of Liberty Stakes for progeny of New York stallions. On Saturday, Dr B won the Grade 3 Go for Wand Stakes for the second consecutive year.
This Saturday, Reid will be back for more when he sends out Disco Ebo in the $120,000 Garland of Roses for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The gifted Ontario-bred Messier makes his first start for trainer Kevin Attard off a layoff in Thursday’s terrific Woodbine feature, a 6 1/2-furlong conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option.
Messier was the early 2022 Kentucky Derby favorite after winning the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis by 15 lengths with a 103 Beyer Speed Figure at Santa Anita. He went on to finish second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and 15th at Churchill Downs before heading to the sidelines.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Danny Gargan was on the road early Sunday morning, headed for South Florida where the bulk of his stable – including recent Grade 2 Remsen winner Dornoch – will be based this winter.
Gargan will, however, maintain a small New York string, including Radio Red who will look to clear the New York-bred second-level allowance condition Thursday at Aqueduct. The seven-furlong race also carries an optional $45,000 claiming condition, and four of the 11 entrants are in for the tag.
DEL MAR, Calif. – An all-Chad Brown superfecta in a Grade 1 race for fillies and mares on turf is becoming an annual event.
On Sunday at Del Mar, the 3-year-old filly Surge Capacity caught stablemate Fluffy Socks near the finish of the $303,500 Matriarch Stakes at a mile, with two other Brown-trained runners, Beaute Cachee and Whitebeam, finishing third and fourth. Those were Brown’s only runners in the 12-horse field.
“All four ran really well,” Brown said late Sunday afternoon.
Violence, whose champion Forte is among his six graded stakes winners this year, will be limited to a book of 125 mares in order to maximize his chances of success in the upcoming breeding season and has thus had his stud fee lowered to $40,000 at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm.
John Sikura, president of Hill ‘n’ Dale, said that for part of the 2023 breeding season Violence was “missing too many of his mares” in a statement released late Sunday night. The farm did not specify what the stallion’s issues were.
While breeders prepare for the arrival of the first Kentucky-sired foals by Girvin after the turn of the year, the young stallion’s Florida-bred crops continue to roll on for him.
Seminole Chief won the FTBOA Florida Sire In Reality Stakes, while Honey Dijon won the FTBOA Florida Sire My Dear Girl Stakes, giving the stallion a sweep of those $300,000 races Saturday at Gulfstream Park. He is the third stallion to sweep the two races in the same year, according to FTBOA records, joining Fortunate Prospect (1994) and Awesome of Course (2011).
The stock of the relatively young broodmare Puca continues to skyrocket, as Dornoch, a full brother to her Kentucky Derby winner Mage, became a graded stakes winner with his game victory in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct.
The first three foals out of Puca, a stakes-winning daughter of Big Brown, are all stakes horses – a powerhouse start to the broodmare career of the mare who, at age 11, likely has many years of production ahead of her.
