The Phipps Stable may no longer operate with the size and scope it once did, but it still is very much an active participant in Thoroughbred racing. Its numbers may currently be the lightest they’ve been, but there is at least one colt who carries the hopes of getting this legendary stable back to the spring classics.
Butch Reid has hit a rough patch with Maximus Meridius, but the trainer said he has not lost an ounce of faith in the 5-year-old gelding. Looking to keep him close to home, Reid decided to pull him out of the $150,000 Toboggan at Aqueduct last Saturday, where he would have opened as the 7-2 third choice.
Reid instead entered him in a $55,000 allowance at Parx Racing on Wednesday, Feb. 4, but the Pennsylvania-bred struggled to overcome a troubled trip and finished fifth. He was later promoted to fourth because of a disqualification.
After a slow January hampered by weather, Brittany Russell is poised to unleash a barn full of live stakes runners in the coming weeks. The parade will begin with Complexity Jane and Sultry Lass in the Nellie Morse Stakes at Laurel on Saturday.
The trainer said Wednesday that Complexity Jane, a three-time stakes winner last year, is “doing great” ahead of her 4-year-old debut. In November, the filly returned from a three-month break and rattled off two straight victories in a pair of $100,000 stakes at Laurel. She is the likely favorite on Saturday.
In order to take down Quint’s Brew again in the $200,000 General George Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday, Robert Bailes said Slam Notion will have to return from a two-month layoff with the best race of his career.
With heavy snowfall and bitter cold keeping the 4-year-old gelding off the track for most of January, Bailes briefly considered pulling the colt out of the race altogether, but a four-furlong workout on Tuesday helped to set the trainer’s mind at ease.
WHO'S HOT
Todd Pletcher. One week after winning the Grade 3 Holy Bull with Nearly, Pletcher won the Sam F. Davis with Renegade, who made a solid 3-year-old debut, closing on a Tampa Bay Downs track that favored forwardly placed runners. Pletcher will look to keep the momentum rolling Saturday with Courting in the Grade 2 Risen Star.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of Grade 2 winners looking to recapture their best form, Five G and Sugar Fish, will square off going a mile on the main track in an $87,000 conditioned allowance Friday at Gulfstream Park.
Five G has not won a race since registering a 2 1/4-length victory here in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks in March 2025. Sugar Fish is winless since capturing the Grade 2 Zenyatta at Santa Anita during the fall of 2024. Both horses qualify for Friday’s race as the result of a clause in the conditions for horses who have not won a race since April 13, 2025.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – From how his career began last summer, Vibrant Express didn’t seem the type that would be going for a fourth consecutive victory in February. But that’s exactly what the 4-year-old gelding by Vekoma will be attempting to accomplish in a seven-furlong, second-level allowance for New York-breds that serves as the feature on Friday’s eight-race card at Aqueduct.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark – Majestic Oops on Friday can become the second Breeders’ Cup Distaff starter to win their seasonal debut at Oaklawn Park in less than a week when she runs in the $150,000 American Beauty.
The six-furlong race for fillies and mares is part of a 10-race card that opens a race week that includes a special holiday card on Monday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Notwithstanding a disappointing comeback in her first start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Super Corredora will march on.
Super Corredora finished last of four starters in the Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 8 at Santa Anita, but trainer John Sadler has not lost faith in the 2025 champion 2-year-old filly. She returns to the track Thursday morning, even without a clear alibi for her below-par comeback.
