HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Trainer Tom Amoss said all options are on the table for Chocolate Martini – including stakes opportunities at Oaklawn Park – after she won her 4-year-old debut at the track Sunday.
Chocolate Martini, the winner of last year’s Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks who was making her first start since October, rallied from next to last for a three-quarter-length win in an allowance route for fillies and mares. For the effort in the 1 1/16-mile race she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 84.
Mr Money Bags is headed back to New Mexico. The gelding, who won his debut in the state, came out of an 11 1/2-length stakes win Saturday night at Sam Houston in good order and will now target the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby, trainer Mike Neatherlin said Monday.
Mr Money Bags earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 89 for his romp in the $65,000 Jim’s Orbit division of the Texas Stallion Stakes on Saturday. Neatherlin said the horse will continue to train at his Sam Houston base before heading to New Mexico a few days out from the Sunland Derby, which is March 24.
Trainer Karl Broberg has achieved some notable milestones over the past two months, and one track central to his reaching those markers has been Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
“It’s the focal point of my year,” Broberg said of the annual meet.
Broberg hit a milestone of 3,000 career training victories Friday night at Sam Houston Race Park – with 674 of those wins having been compiled at Delta dating back to 2010.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After Code of Honor finished a disappointing fourth as the odds-on favorite making his 3-year-old debut in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man earlier in the meet, trainer Shug McGaughey decided he needed to get a little tougher on his top Kentucky Derby prospect as the winter progressed. Eight weeks and six works later, the Hall of Fame horseman thinks he’s got Code of Honor right where he needs him for a much-improved effort here Saturday in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher reported both Prince Lucky and Copper Town came out of their one-two finish in Saturday’s Grade 3 Hal’s Hope in good order. Prince Lucky turned in easily the best performance of his career, winning by six lengths under jockey John Velazquez while earning a 106 Beyer Speed Figure in the process.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Platinum Warrior, the 16-1 upset winner of the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes on Feb. 2 at Santa Anita, is bound for the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup at two miles at Meydan in the United Arab Emirates on March 30.
Trainer John Sadler said Sunday that Platinum Warrior was considered for three stakes at Meydan on March 30 and that the $1.5 million Dubai Gold Cup is preferred over the $6 million Dubai Turf at about 1 1/8 miles or the $6 million Sheema Classic at about 1 1/2 miles.
The Dubai Gold Cup will be the longest race of Platinum Warrior’s career.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stormy Liberal, the 2018 champion turf male, was given a clean bill of health over the weekend after a worrisome incident in an allowance race last Friday at Santa Anita when the 7-year-old gelding stumbled prior to finishing second.
The positive diagnosis has led trainer Peter Miller to plan a start for Stormy Liberal in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates on March 30.
“He’s fine,” Miller said. “We were very concerned, obviously, when he looked like he slipped. Thank goodness, he’s 100 percent.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The desire to add a Kentucky Derby to a trophy case that already includes multiple Eclipse Awards and a Hall of Fame plaque brought jockey Javier Castellano all the way to Santa Anita on Monday morning to work the unbeaten Instagrand and two other 3-year-olds for owner Larry Best, who reached out to secure Castellano for Instagrand.
“You’re still always looking for a challenge, and the biggest challenge, the biggest prize, for me is the Derby,” Castellano said. “This is the time you have to search.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The last three winners of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes all shipped to Aqueduct from South Florida. That’s a trend trainer Victor Barboza Jr. hopes continues when he ships up Zenden for the $300,000 Gotham on March 9.
Barboza on Monday confirmed the Gotham as the next spot for Zenden, a son of Fed Biz who is coming off a second-place finish to Call Paul in the Grade 3 Swale Stakes going seven furlongs Feb. 2 at Gulfstream. Prior to that race, Zenden won a maiden race and the Buffalo Man Stakes, both six-furlong races at Gulfstream.
