ARCADIA, Calif. – Leading candidates for the four graded stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, March 9, were among 317 works here on Friday.
Friday was a busier-than-normal day for workouts, with a rainstorm expected Saturday. Santa Anita closed its main track for training late Monday morning and all of Tuesday and Wednesday to inspect the surface following 19 equine fatalities in recent months. Track officials and consultants said no irregularities were found in the inspection.
Win Win Win will have Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard next Saturday when the speedy colt stretches out around two turns for the first time in the Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
Win Win Win set the Tampa track record of 1:20.89 in winning the seven-furlong Pasco Stakes on Jan. 19, after which trainer Mike Trombetta set his sights on the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby. Win Win Win, a Live Oak Stud homebred by Hat Trick, has won three of four starts, all with Julian Pimentel aboard and none beyond seven furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Multiple Grade 1 winner Elate, idle since her gut-wrenching second-place finish in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign last August at Saratoga, is getting closer to her much-anticipated 2019 debut, trainer Bill Mott said this week.
Elate, the runaway winner of the Grade 1 Alabama and Grade 1 Beldame in 2017, started just twice last year. She was an easy winner of the Delaware Handicap going 1 1/4 miles in her seasonal debut before losing by a neck to Abel Tasman after a bumping duel in late stretch of the Personal Ensign.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Chad Brown already has won 24 races the first two months of the year, and his runners have earned more than $3.8 million, second among trainers to Michael McCarthy, whose City of Light won the Pegasus World Cup. He has had plenty of action so far, most notably winning the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Turf with Bricks and Mortar, and Brown’s deep stable is about to flex its considerable muscle.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Identity Politics, second in the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita in his last start on Dec. 26, is using an allowance race at Gulfstream on Sunday as a bridge to another Grade 1 race, the Carter at Aqueduct on April 6, trainer Chad Brown said.
The seven-furlong race, the 10th on Sunday’s card, is an optional claimer that drew eight other runners, only one of whom is entered for a $25,000 claiming tag.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Bravazo will miss an intended start in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 30, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Friday.
Lukas said Bravazo has been diagnosed with “small flakes” in the upper joint of his left knee. The horse shipped early Friday morning from his Oaklawn base to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky. Dr. Larry Bramlage will perform arthroscopic surgery, said Lukas.
“Yesterday, he had a beautiful gallop, but he was a little tender cooling out and we took a picture,” Lukas said Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Not That Brady, beaten a head by Tax when second in the Grade 3 Withers here on Feb. 2, has been dealing with a quarter crack, but trainer Rudy Rodriguez said Thursday he has not ruled the New York-bred out of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes on March 9.
Rodriguez said Not That Brady came out his most recent workout, a half-mile move in 49.10 seconds on Feb. 17, with a quarter crack on his right front foot.
Not That Brady missed a workout this week. Rodriguez said farrier Ian McKinlay was planning to patch the quarter crack on Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The graded stakes-winning 2-year-olds Instagrand and Knicks Go will make their next starts in the $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 9, adding a bit of intrigue to the Grade 3 race, which offers 85 qualifying points to the May 4 Kentucky Derby.
The one-turn-mile configuration of the Gotham was mentioned by the connections of both horses as a reason why they will be shipping in for the race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Full training resumed on Santa Anita’s main track on Thursday after nearly three days of tests and inspection of the surface found no irregularities. The tests were prompted by the deaths of 19 horses while racing or training at the track since late December.
Although the main track was open, there was less training activity compared to a typical weekday, with several trainers taking a wait-and-see approach.
Total purses distributed during the first 19 days of the 38-day spring meet at Churchill Downs will be up 46 percent over the same dates in 2018, the racetrack announced on Thursday, due largely to revenue from a casino Churchill opened in Louisville, Ky., last year.
Purses in the track’s first condition book for the spring meet total $20.1 million for 189 races, according to the track, up from $13.7 million for the first condition book last year. Churchill also said total purse distribution for the meet will be approximately $30 million, up from $22.2 million last year.
