HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although she’s had the majority of her success on grass, Fast as Flight has also shown an affinity for the Tapeta surface at Gulfstream Park, an attribute that should serve her well when the stakes-winning mare goes postward among the favorites in Sunday’s main event, the $100,000 Orange Blossom.
The overnight handicap for older fillies and mares will be decided at a mile and 70 yards and highlights an 11-race program that begins at 12:10 p.m.
Doug O’Neill won the $300,000 Zia Park Derby on Tuesday with Two Rivers Over. The horse has since returned home to Southern California.
“He looks phenomenal,” O’Neill said Thursday. “He’s back at Santa Anita. He looks really, really well.”
Two Rivers Over was a two-length winner of the Zia Derby, covering the 1 1/16 miles in a track-record-equaling time of 1:41.87. For his effort in the race, which was hand-timed, he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.
Flying Connection, who won the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks on Tuesday, will likely make her next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 La Brea at Santa Anita, trainer Todd Fincher said Thursday. The seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies is Dec. 26.
“That’s what we’re looking at,” Fincher said.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has been known to split its prep races for the Kentucky Derby, and there’s a chance that could happen for the first points race of the coming year, the $300,000 Smarty Jones on Jan. 1.
Lou Cella, president of Oaklawn, said the track is fielding a level of interest in the race that has already warranted internal discussions about the potential for two divisions of the Smarty Jones.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. –Today’s Flavor was making his third start in five weeks and got embroiled in a hot pace duel when he finished last of seven in the Hudson Stakes on Oct. 29 at Aqueduct.
When Today’s Flavor runs in Sunday’s $125,000 Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Series, he’ll have had five weeks between races and, drawn toward the outside, could work out a more comfortable trip in the seven-furlong race at Aqueduct.
The mixed sale season continues in a racing-rich regional marketplace with a number of incentives for breeders as Fasig-Tipton hosts its Midlantic December mixed and horses of racing age sale on Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
The mixed section of the sale and the horses of racing age supplement have separate catalogs, although the sale will be held as a single session. The main catalog, consisting of broodmares and prospects, weanlings, and yearlings, has 156 horses cataloged, including supplemental entries.
The depth of trainer Chad Brown’s team in Sunday’s Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar is staggering.
There is Whitebeam, winner of the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga in July, along with Fluffy Socks, a three-time graded stakes winner who won at Del Mar in 2020.
They are joined by the lightly raced 3-year-old stakes winner Surge Capacity and Beaute Cachee, a former European runner and a stakes winner this year.
“We sent four and they all deserve to be in the race,” Brown said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Late bloomer Millie Girl will try to become the first filly or mare to win the $150,000 Valedictory Stakes in more than 25 years when she takes on a salty group of males in Sunday’s renewal of the 1 1/2-mile marathon at Woodbine.
After dreadful trips in one-mile turf races in September and October, Lord Bullingdon had better luck at a pivotal time in the Qatar Golden Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.
Overcoming a troubled start, Lord Bullingdon closed from last of six to win by a convincing 3 3/4 lengths, the sort of performance trainer and co-owner Michael McCarthy thought he would see from the colt earlier this year.
The win in the Qatar Golden Mile is the kind of race McCarthy expects from Lord Bullingdon in Sunday’s Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf at Del Mar.
