OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The Fall Highweight Handicap is now rescheduled for Sunday after having to be postponed twice in four days.
Originally scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, the Fall Highweight had to be moved when that card was canceled due to high winds. The race was rescheduled for last Sunday, but the final five races of that card were canceled when the jockeys refused to ride because of inclement weather.
Trainer Mike Stidham and owner Godolphin won the 2019 Jimmy Durante Stakes last Saturday at Del Mar with Alms, and the same connections will try to take down the featured eighth race Thursday at Fair Grounds with Elsa, who won the 2018 Jimmy Durante.
From New Orleans to San Diego, Saturday was a grand day for the Mike Stidham stable.
At Fair Grounds, Stidham-trained horses won three races, including an eye-catching maiden score from 2-year-old filly Ursula, who flashed serious stakes potential.
At Del Mar, Stidham charge Alms, another 2-year-old filly, ran her career mark to three wins from three starts with a dominant victory in the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes. Alms got an 88 Beyer Speed Figure, the second-highest route number for a 2-year-old filly in North America this year.
Trainers Bob Baffert and Peter Miller were fined by the Del Mar stewards recently for excessive levels of the analgesic phenylbutazone found in their runners earlier this year.
Baffert was cited for two violations, from when Cruel Intention finished third in the Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar on July 27 and when Eclair finished fourth in the first race at Del Mar on Aug. 3, a maiden special weight.
Baffert was fined $500 for the first violation and $1,500 for the second since it occurred within a year of the first violation.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Maximum Security and Spun to Run, the two likely favorites for what is shaping up to be a 10-horse field for Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, both put in their final serious training sessions over the weekend.
www.drf.com/race-results/tracks/AQU/country/USA/date/12-07-2019
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar ended its brief and truncated fall meeting on a high note this past weekend, finishing with top-class stakes racing that produced strong betting figures and helped propel the track to its best average daily handle in the six seasons it has held racing at this time of year since the demise of Hollywood Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. – This was a weekend for ex-claimers to shine in turf marathon stakes at Del Mar.
Saturday, the former $8,000 claimer Zuzanna won the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles on turf. Sunday, Oscar Dominguez, claimed four times in 2018 for $40,000 and earlier this year for that amount, won his first stakes in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles.
Trainer Richard Baltas credited Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez for the victory with Oscar Dominguez. The two barely had a strategy talk before the race, Velazquez said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Zuzanna, the upset winner of the Red Carpet Handicap on Saturday at Del Mar, was scheduled to be sent to Florida this week, where, owing to her development this year, she would be eligible for anything from starter-allowance races to graded stakes.
Santa Anita is planning two four-day racing weeks during the holiday period for the start of its winter-spring meeting.
Racing secretary Steve Lym said the track will run from Dec. 26-29, a Thursday through Sunday for opening week. There will be racing on Wednesday, Jan. 1, but no racing on Thursday, Jan. 2 before racing resumes for a three-day weekend from Jan. 3-5.
In the first full week of January, there will be a three-day racing week from Jan. 10-12, a Friday through Sunday. For most of the meeting through June 21, the track is planning to race four days a week.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Alms will finish her 2-year-old season undefeated.
Saturday, the promising filly won her first start at a mile, and second stakes, in the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes on turf. The victory left trainer Mike Stidham planning a vacation for Alms in coming months. The long-range goals are the lucrative stakes for 3-year-old fillies in New York through the summer.
“We’re in talks for a slight freshening and get ready for the spring and summer next year,” Stidham said on Sunday from his winter base in New Orleans.
