Jockey Luis Antonio Gonzalez was handed a 15-day suspension in a ruling issued on Monday by Mahoning Valley stewards in Ohio for a “failure to give best effort” while riding the favorite in the eighth race at the track on Dec. 26.
Gonzalez had a two-length lead on 7-5 Rapida entering the stretch of the six-furlong allowance but his mount, Rapida, was beaten by a head at the wire by the second choice in the $33,700 race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Before he sets up shop at Gulfstream Park for the winter, jockey Dylan Davis had some unfinished business in New York.
It was important to Davis to end 2024 as the leading rider on the New York Racing Association circuit, something he accomplished with 209 wins, 13 more than Manny Franco. Davis also led all jockeys in purse money won with $15,349,606, a smidge more than Franco’s $15,318,056.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Casalu’s win in Saturday’s Blue Norther Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at a mile on turf at Santa Anita was the first stakes victory on the surface for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert since Du Jour won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at the same venue last March.
Casalu is the stable’s top turf runner at the start of 2025. Baffert said on Sunday that Du Jour was retired in the fall to start a second career as a hunter-jumper.
Du Jour, a winner of 6 of 21 starts, has since been sent to Kentucky, where he is based with Amy Bunt.
ARCADIA, Calif. - This is a time of year when leading runners trained by Phil D’Amato are departing the stable for wintertime breaks while others are returning from recent rests.
Since Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting began on Thursday, D’Amato has won Grade 2 stakes with King of Gosford in Thursday’s Mathis Mile and with Motorious in Saturday’s Joe Hernandez Stakes.
They are bound for 30-day rests soon, while the 2024 stakes winner Iron Man Cal returned to the stable on Sunday after a late autumn vacation, D’Amato said.
Pier Pressure was struggling through a nine-race losing streak when she won a low-level handicap at Australia's Scone Racecourse as the 1-5 favorite on Nov. 19.
The race has revitalized her career.
A 4-year-old filly, Pier Pressure has won twice since then against better rivals, leading to her eighth appearance in a stakes in Monday’s Group 3 Belle of the Turf Stakes at a mile for fillies and mares at Wyong Racecourse.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., canceled its card after the first race Saturday due to inclement weather, the track announced. The feature on the 10-race card was to have been the $175,000 Tinsel Stakes.
The track expects to race Sunday.
The first race Saturday was delayed about 35 minutes due to lightning in the area. It was run without incident on a sloppy, sealed track.
The horses were in the paddock for the second race, waiting to be saddled, when it was announced the remainder of the card had been canceled.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Saturday’s first race at Gulfstream Park was declared a no contest after the stewards activated the emergency signal indicating a potentially dangerous situation on the track during the running of the one-mile optional claiming and allowance turf event.
The incident that brought the steward’s action came shortly after the start of the race, when Rosco Village stumbled and lost his rider, Jorge Ruiz, who lay motionless on the course as the 12-horse field ran up the backstretch.
Nelson Avenue is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Tuesday’s Blitzen Stakes for 3-year-olds and up racing seven furlongs at Parx Racing.
The Blitzen is one of three $75,000 stakes on the New Year’s Eve program with the Kris Kringle for 3-year-olds and upward at 1 1/16 miles and the Mrs. Claus for fillies and mares at seven furlongs.
Nelson Avenue blossomed after being claimed at Saratoga for $40,000 by trainer Wayne Potts. He won his first two for Potts, finished a close second in the Grade 3 Forty Niner, and then ran eighth in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bentornato, the Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up who was scheduled to start as one of the favorites in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes on Thursday at Santa Anita, was scratched due to a hot foot.
The setback is minor according to trainer Jose D’Angelo, but the timing was unfortunate. D’Angelo said Bentornato had been “perfect” every day at Santa Anita since arriving from Florida on Dec.10, but Thursday morning things went south.
“He had a little [heat] in the left front foot,” D’Angelo said. “I’d rather take him out, and have him ready for the next out.”
The 3-year-olds Valence and Alotaluck have been career-defining runners for trainer Ty Garrett in 2024.
A stable that typically races at venues in states such as Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico is trying something new this week.
Valence is entered in Thursday’s Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita, the first start at the historic track for the 47-year-old Garrett. Valence has already given Garrett his richest win in the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks in New Mexico on Nov. 26.
