HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ticonderoga made an impressive return from a seven-month layoff when he rallied from last with an eye-catching surge down the middle of the course to capture Thursday’s optional-claiming feature, defeating a field that included five graded stakes winners.
Ticonderoga, ridden on Thursday by Javier Castellano, had won his only prior local start two years earlier in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes during the winter of his 3-year-old campaign.
Mucho Gusto and Anothertwistafate are among the 3-year-olds Sunland Park officials are expecting for the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby. The post position draw for the March 24 race, which carries eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby, will be held on the New Mexico track’s simulcast signal Sunday.
“We’re hoping to have a field of 10 to 12,” Dustin Dix, Sunland’s director of racing, said Friday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the most important race of his star 3-year-old Bourbon War’s career coming up in just 15 days and a work scheduled for later in the morning, one couldn’t blame trainer Mark Hennig for fretting a bit as an unexpected shower rolled through shortly after the racetrack opened for training here on Friday.
Fortunately, after some anxious moments and a bit of a delay, all’s well that ended well for Hennig and Bourbon War, who breezed an easy four furlongs in 50.42 seconds over a fast and harrowed track following the second renovation break.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two of the three horses who shipped here from Southern California for last weekend’s stakes action at Aqueduct remained in New York.
Much Better, who set the pace in the Grade 3 Gotham before fading to fourth, is at Belmont Park in trainer John Terranova’s barn. Trainer Bob Baffert said Much Better came out of the race in good order and would be nominated to, among other stakes, the Bay Shore, a Grade 3 stakes at seven furlongs, and the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at 1 1/8 miles, both on April 6 at Aqueduct.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Stonesintheroad, the undefeated New York-bred 3-year-old filly, worked a half-mile in 49 seconds Friday morning over Belmont Park’s training track.
Stonesintheroad, a daughter of Bustin Stones, is nominated to next Saturday’s $100,000 Cicada Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. She could run there or in the $200,000 Park Avenue division of the New York Stallion Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs here April 20, or in both.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Signs of spring were in ample supply Friday in New York. The temperatures were in the low 60s, the racing office sent out a text to horsemen that the first 2-year-old races of the year will be carded for April 17 and 18, and the stakes-winning turf filly La Moneda worked three furlongs at Belmont Park.
La Moneda, who won the Yaddo at Saratoga and most recently finished second in the Grade 3 My Charmer at Gulfstream Park in December, went three furlongs in 37.77 seconds.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Summer’s Indy had been entered in Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri at Oaklawn, but she will run instead in Sunday’s sixth race, trainer Karl Broberg said Friday.
Summer’s Indy will start as a top contender in the optional $50,000 claiming route for fillies and mares that carries second-level allowance conditions. The 1 1/16-mile race also drew Mylady Curlin, who could go favored off a runner-up finish to Grade 2 winner Chocolate Martini at the same condition Feb. 24.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hopeful, nervous anticipation that California racing is on its way back gave way to grim reality Thursday morning at Santa Anita Park.
A lightly raced maiden filly broke both front legs at the conclusion of a half-mile workout on the Santa Anita main track, just yards past the finish wire. When she was euthanized, she became the 22nd equine fatality at Santa Anita since the winter meet began Dec. 26.
Runners from Bob Baffert, Jerry Hollendorfer, and Richard Mandella were split equitably into the two divisions of the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park when the race was drawn Wednesday, but trainer Steve Asmussen’s six entrants were not, with two in one division and four in the other, a situation Oaklawn stewards on Thursday admitted was in error.
According to Stan Bowker, one of the stewards at Oaklawn, the stewards chose not to redraw the races on Wednesday after the error was called to their attention. The overnight had yet to be published.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice will be favored to win her second straight $100,000 Correction Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct. Now, it’s up to handicappers to decipher which of the four fillies and mares she entered in the six-horse field is the right one.
Rice won this six-furlong race last year with Sounds Delicious, a 9-2 shot, who went coast to coast while Startwithsilver could only manage a third-place finish as the 8-5 favorite after an extremely wide trip.
