Led by Cyclone State, the winner of the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 4, Saturday’s Group 3, $1.5 million Saudi Derby at a mile in Saudi Arabia has three nominees to the American Triple Crown in its field of 10.
Cyclone State, trained by Chad Summers for the partnership of Gold Square LLC, George Messina, and Michael Lee, was the 3-1 favorite with British bookmakers as of Wednesday morning.
Nanda Dea was a champion miler and Group 1 winner in Argentina, but her American trainer, Ignacio Correas, is in no hurry to rush the mare back to top-level competition.
Nanda Dea ran her record to 10-8-1-0 and made it two wins from two American starts capturing the $100,000 Albert Stall Memorial Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds. She has shipped back to Correas’s base at Keeneland but will return to Fair Grounds for the $150,000 Tom Benson Memorial Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on grass.
For the second race in a row, East Avenue’s form went south. But unlike the colt’s ninth-place finish as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, where a stumbling start compromised him, East Avenue’s distant 10th as the 4-5 favorite in the Risen Star this past Saturday has his connections befuddled.
Turfway Park will run the card drawn for Wednesday on Sunday, normally a dark day, and has canceled its Thursday card due to another winter storm moving into Central Kentucky.
The Sunday card will start at 4:15 p.m., Turfway said. The races planned for Thursday will be added as extras to upcoming cards, according to the track.
Temperatures are set to plummet in Central Kentucky and much of the Midwest on Wednesday, which also includes a forecast for morning snow. Overnight temps are supposed to reach single digits on Thursday night.
In advance of a winter storm system, Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has moved the Rebel Stakes card to Sunday, according to track president Lou Cella. The card featuring the Kentucky Derby points race was originally scheduled for Saturday.
Oaklawn also is shifting Friday's program to Saturday and Sunday's program to Monday. The races will be run as originally drawn. The decision to change the schedule came Tuesday morning, said Cella.
Just F Y I, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2023 who went winless in three starts in 2024, is nearing her return to the races.
Just F Y I has worked seven times at Payson Park since New Year’s Day, including a five-furlong move in 1:03 on Sunday. Trainer Bill Mott said he has not yet picked out a return race for Just F Y I.
“I want to make sure she’s ready,” Mott said Monday from Florida. “She’s doing well. I could run her here [Gulfstream], or run her at Keeneland, or wait for New York for that matter.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The much-anticipated rematch between Burnham Square and Tappan Street, the first- and second-place finishers, respectively, in the Grade 3 Holy Bull here earlier this month, will not take place as many had hoped a week from Saturday in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.
Straight No Chaser, the champion sprinter of 2024, worked a half-mile in 48.40 seconds in Saudi Arabia on Monday in advance of Saturday’s Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in that country, trainer Dan Blacker wrote in a text message.
Blacker described Straight No Chaser’s exercise as “in hand.”
The $2 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint at six furlongs will be Straight No Chaser’s first start since a title-clinching win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 2
ARCADIA, Calif. – Journalism, unbeaten in two starts around two turns, worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Santa Anita on Sunday in advance of his scheduled 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 1.
The $300,000 San Felipe Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles and is a key prep race for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles on April 5.
Journalism is rated as one of the leading 3-year-old Triple Crown prospects in California.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Monday’s eight-race live program at Aqueduct has been canceled due to forecasted high winds, the New York Racing Association announced Sunday.
Monday’s card follows the cancellation of Sunday’s card for the same reason.
The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory from 6 p.m. Sunday through 6 p.m. Monday. It calls for winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 miles per hour.
