ARCADIA, Calif. – Sweet Lulu had an ambitious fall campaign, with trips to Saratoga, Parx, and then a start in the Breeders’ Cup, all in Grade 1 races. She has had a bit of time off since then, but the stakes remain just as high on Thursday at Santa Anita, when Sweet Lulu attempts to win her second Grade 1 race of the year in the $300,000 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
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DRF Past Performances
ARCADIA, Calif. – Thursday represents more than the cherished opening day of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. It starts a new era of racing in California.
With Hollywood Park having closed Dec. 22 and scheduled for residential and commercial development, Santa Anita takes on a greater role in the sport. In past years, the meeting that begins Thursday typically would run until late April. This year, it will continue through June, absorbing most of the former Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting days.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Jockey Corey Nakatani was greeted by a large and enthusiastic crowd when he rode Woodmans Luck into the winner’s circle after the last race in the history of Betfair Hollywood Park on Sunday evening.
But the veteran rider was not in a festive mood. He barely smiled while Woodmans Luck fidgeted before standing still for the photo.
Fair Grounds canceled the last six races of its Sunday card because of heavy rain.
Race 3 was delayed for almost a half-hour, eventually being run at about 2:30 p.m. Central, but with more rain headed to the New Orleans area and the Fair Grounds track already a sea of slop, the decision was made to scrap races 4 through 9.
A decision hasn’t been made on whether to make up the canceled races on a future card.
Jockey David Flores plans to relocate to Singapore for the first half of 2014 and could be based there longer, he said Sunday.
Flores, who has ridden at Fair Grounds in recent weeks, will ride Santa Anita’s opening day Thursday and travel to Singapore that night.
“I’ll stay for six months and go from there,” Flores said. “There are a couple of stables that want me to ride for them. I didn’t make a commitment to any [one] stable.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Sunday’s final day of racing in the history of Betfair Hollywood Park will have a pick six carryover of $122,406.
The carryover was announced after the ninth race on Saturday’s 11-race program, with two races remaining in the bet.
Sunday’s pick six covers the sixth through 11th races on an 11-race program that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific. There are plenty of horses to consider in Sunday’s pick six. The pick six races have fields of 14, 9, 8, 8, 11, and 12. The final race drew 15 runners, but will be limited to 12 starters.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The pick six paid $323,801 at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday, the first day of the final weekend of live racing in track history. There was one winning ticket.
On a gorgeous late autumn day, with temperatures in the low 60s, bettors added $457,156 to the pool in pursuit of a carryover of $79,599 from last Sunday.
The winners of Friday’s pick six races, beginning in the third race, were Julio’s Gold ($8.20), Candiz ($21.40), Scorcher ($7), Rock Off ($14.60), Oscillator ($7.80), and World Famous Sam T ($82).
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Way back in 1987, jockey Aaron Gryder was part of Hollywood Park history at the track’s autumn meeting.
He won the riding title that fall with 31 victories, the second apprentice jockey to lead the standings and the first to do so since 1941. Gryder’s title came in competition with riders such as Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay Jr., Chris McCarron, Eddie Delahoussaye, and Gary Stevens, to name a few.
“I won the Matriarch,” Gryder recalled on Thursday. “There were an amazing group of riders back then.”
Last Christmas, Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens was two weeks away from a comeback and wondering whether he was capable of riding at his customary high level.
“I didn’t have any horses I knew I’d be riding,” he said earlier this week.
This year, Stevens, 50, approaches the holiday period with an enviable book of mounts for the last days of December and 2014. He rides Beholder, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1, and Mucho Macho Man, who won the BC Classic on Nov. 2.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. – Kathy Ritvo, who became the first woman to train a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner when Mucho Macho Man defeated a world-class field in November, and veterinarian Dr. Richard Sheehan Jr., who has served the racing community for more than 20 years, have received the highest annual honors from the New England Turf Writers Association.