ARCADIA, Calif. – The top turf sprinter in California is not traveling to Dubai after all.
Motorious, a five-time graded stakes winner who finished second in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, was turned out, trainer Phil D’Amato said this week. A trip to Dubai had been discussed, but the idea was scrapped.
“We ended up turning him out, I didn’t like his last race,” D’Amato said.
A federal bankruptcy judge in Illinois on Tuesday approved a motion that will allow Thoroughbred horsemen to access money in their purse accounts at Hawthorne Racecourse in Stickney, according to officials who attended a hearing on the track’s recent bankruptcy filing.
Laurel Park has canceled its card for Saturday, March 14, due to insufficient entries. All canceled races will be brought back as overnight extras on Sunday.
Racing at Laurel Saturday was slated to coincide with the final day of the three-day spring meet at Colonial Downs, which will include the $500,000 Virginia Derby, $250,000 Virginia Oaks, and three more stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. – For the fifth time in his career, California jockey Juan Hernandez won at least three stakes on the same day, on Saturday at Santa Anita.
His latest hat trick was a mix of a short-priced favorite, a massive longshot, and a mid-priced contender who could start in the Kentucky Derby.
Book’em Danno, the champion sprinter of 2025, was not entered in Friday’s Boston Handicap at Colonial Downs, so his return to the races will come in either the Carter Stakes at Aqueduct or the Commonwealth at Keeneland.
Both stakes are run at seven furlongs on April 4. The Grade 3 Commonwealth, at $350,000, is worth $50,000 more than the Grade 2 Carter.
“Whichever is the easiest of the two,” trainer Derek Ryan said. “I’ll watch the weather and stuff like that. I’ve got a couple of New York-breds that I got to bring back [to New York].”
Trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole retired Grade 1 winners Fierceness and Mindframe following 2025, but their cupboard is not bare of talented older dirt males.
Disruptor won his first graded stakes Saturday when he beat heavily favored Disco Time in the Grade 3, $100,000 Challenger Stakes. His final time of 1:41.40 was just .20 off the track record and earned Disruptor a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
Last month, Grande won a second-level allowance at Gulfstream Park, his third victory from four career starts and one in which he earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure.
On Saturday at Santa Anita, the well-regarded first-time starter Decisive Win starts for trainer Doug O’Neill in a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Purchased for $600,000 at the Fasig-Tipton mid-Atlantic sale of 2-year-olds in-training in Maryland last May, Decisive Win is part of a field of 10 in the day’s sixth race.
Decisive Win has displayed a series of quick recent workouts, including five furlongs in 58 seconds on Feb. 11, and the same distance from the gate in 58.60 last Sunday.
Light Won Up is bound for the Grade 3 Limestone Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf at Keeneland on April 10 after her win in the Sweet Life Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Feb. 7.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said on Friday that the $350,000 Limestone Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs is preferred over Sunday’s $100,000 China Doll Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita.
“She’s like a stick of dynamite,” he said. “She’s so on it and speedy and full of herself. I don’t think she’s ready to go two turns. We’ll keep her one turn.”
Touchuponastar, who put up the year’s highest Beyer Speed Figure in a two-turn race last month at Delta Downs, is on pace to make his next start closing weekend at Fair Grounds, according to his owner, Jake Delhomme.
Touchuponastar earned a Beyer of 106 for his 11 1/2-length win in the Louisiana Premier Night Championship on Feb. 7. He won under his regular rider, Timothy Thornton, who also often works Touchuponastar for trainer Jeff Delhomme. Touchuponastar has since been breezing at his base of Copper Crowne Training Center in Opelousas, La.
