HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Super Steed, who upset the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest at 62-1 last month at Oaklawn, is getting a minimum of 60 days off, trainer Larry Jones said Monday.
Oaklawn announced Sunday that the horse is off the Triple Crown trail.
Jones told Daily Racing Form on Monday that Super Steed has bone bruising in one of his ankles. The horse had been pointed to the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel on March 16 at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Top-class sprinters took center stage all weekend at Oaklawn Park.
Mitole put up the meet’s highest Beyer Speed Figure to date – a 102 – for an allowance win Saturday.
Amy’s Challenge recorded her second blowout stakes win of the meet one race later, in the $100,000 Spring Fever.
And on Sunday the Grade 2 winner Mia Mischief won an allowance in her first start since the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
ARCADIA, Calif. – More than nine months have passed since Hunt won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on Memorial Day weekend. Hunt has failed to replicate that form in three subsequent starts, and trainer Phil D’Amato is hoping Hunt will once again show his best in Saturday’s Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita.
“He’s definitely got to show the form he showed last year,” D’Amato said on Sunday. “He shows it in his breezes. I was very happy with his last two.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – McKinzie, the winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes on Dec. 26, will carry top weight of 123 pounds in Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.
The $600,000 Big Cap, run at 1 1/4 miles, will be McKinzie’s second start this year, preceded by a second to Battle of Midway in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 2. The Santa Anita Handicap will be McKinzie’s first start at 1 1/4 miles since a 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.
Trained by Bob Baffert, McKinzie worked six furlongs in 1:13.80 on Monday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Easy Shot’s status for the 2019 Triple Crown scene will be determined in a top-class running of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.
The $500,000 San Felipe at 1 1/16 miles is expected to be led by Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old male of 2018, and Improbable, who won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity in December in his last start.
Monday, Game Winner worked five furlongs in 1:00.60, while Improbable went the same distance in 59.60 seconds.
The San Felipe will be by far the toughest race of Easy Shot’s career.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Vino Rosso began his career with a victory at Aqueduct at age 2 and five months later recorded his biggest victory to date here when he won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial.
Saturday, Vino Rosso will return to Aqueduct to kick off what his connections hope is a successful 4-year-old campaign when he runs in the $150,000 Stymie Stakes.
The Stymie, run as a one-turn mile, will be Vino Rosso’s first start since he finished fifth, beaten nine lengths by winner Catholic Boy, in the Aug. 25 Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
A large field of 3-year-olds is expected for the Jeff Ruby at Turfway Park when post positions are drawn Wednesday during a luncheon at Jeff Ruby Steakhouse in downtown Cincinnati.
Besides Somelikeithotbrown, other horses considered probable for the race by stakes coordinator Randy Wehrman include Baytown Jimbo, Twelfofneverland, Five Star General, Skywire, Counter Offer, Curlin Grey, Mooonster, Dynamic Racer, Dabo and Speed App.
When in the NuLu neighborhood of Louisville in summer 2013, Jim Shircliff decided to write on a large chalkboard on the façade of a museum as other visitors had done. With the words “Before I die I want to” already written on the chalkboard, most participants opted to complete the sentence with funny or romantic wishes. Shircliff opted for an impossible dream.
“Win the Triple Crown w/ my daughter!” he wrote.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer John Servis reported all was well with his Eclipse Award winner Jaywalk in the wake of her fourth place finish as the 1-5 favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2 Davona Dale.
“All’s good. She ate good, she’s acting good, her legs look good,” Servis said after training hours on Sunday morning.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Some people might have been troubled by Signalman’s seventh-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, but his trainer Ken McPeek wasn’t one of them.
McPeek couldn’t have been more upbeat or confident in his Grade 2-winning Kentucky Derby hopeful when looking back on the effort the following day.
