Bigger Picture has stakes options at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita after winning the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston Race Park for the third straight time Sunday. He shuttled home by 3 1/2 lengths and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
“He ran super,” trainer Mike Maker said. “He never ceases to amaze me.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – With a forecast of significant rain this weekend, Santa Anita officials have postponed two turf stakes scheduled for Saturday and Sunday to the Feb. 9 program.
The Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on Saturday and $75,000 Baffle Stakes for 3-year-olds on the hillside turf course on Sunday have been moved back a week. Rain is expected daily from Thursday through Sunday.
“With an extra week, they tell me we can have full fields,” said Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of Santa Anita’s parent company, The Stronach Group.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Game Winner, the undefeated champion 2-year-old male of 2018, worked five furlongs in 1:03.40 on Wednesday at Santa Anita for a scheduled 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 9.
Trainer Bob Baffert timed Game Winner in a slightly faster 1:03.
“He went easy,” Baffert said. “He went off a little slow. He’s pretty ready. He didn’t lose much condition.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Antonio Sano said he is undeterred by the sixth-place finish by Gunnevera in the Pegasus World Cup last Saturday and that the March 30 Dubai World Cup will be next for the 5-year-old horse.
Gunnevera had a spot of traffic trouble around the three-eighths pole but otherwise had no excuses when finishing 13 lengths behind City of Light.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Kelly Breen knows better than to spout off without good reason. Deep down, Breen believes Epic Dreamer has the potential to develop into a Kentucky Derby type of horse, but the data isn’t there yet.
“There’s not much to say until he runs a big race in a big race,” Breen said. “I’ve got a lot of faith in him, but let’s let him prove what he can do.”
Midnight Bisou’s end game this year is a return trip to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and part of her path there is scheduled to run through Oaklawn Park.
Midnight Bisou – an Eclipse Award finalist for champion 3-year-old filly of 2018 – launched her 4-year-old season Sunday with a last-to-first win in the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston Race Park. She captured the 1 1/16-mile race by three-quarters of a length and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 91. It was her first start since running third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 3.
Gray Attempt won the $150,000 Smarty Jones wire to wire last week at Oaklawn Park, but it might be a mistake to brand the 3-year-old as one-dimensional. He was stretching out from six furlongs to a mile for a race that ended at the sixteenth pole and he drew the widest gate in circumstances that dictated tactics, trainer Jinks Fires said.
“We had the eight post and if you don’t go on from there, you could wind up getting hung wide all the way around the first turn,” Fires said.
The equine herpesvirus quarantine at Parx Racing that began Jan. 9 was lifted Wednesday, and horses are free to leave the backstretch without restrictions. Other tracks in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have resumed accepting entries from horses stabled at Parx.
A horse stabled in Barn 27 at Parx with trainer Ramon Martin spiked a fever on Jan. 8 and was sent to the Mid-Atlantic Equine Center in Ringoes, N.J. That horse tested positive for the non-neurological strain of the equine herpesvirus, but its temperature soon subsided.
Next Shares returned Monday to Santa Anita, none the worse after a bad trip contributed to his seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus Turf Invitational on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
A Grade 1 winner last fall in Kentucky and Grade 2 winner this year in California, Next Shares never had a chance in the Pegasus Turf. He steadied while repeatedly racing inside, was shuffled and lost position into and through the far turn, and was unable to overcome the trip under Tyler Gafflione. He finished 11 3/4-lengths behind winner Bricks and Mortar.
Trainer Mark Reid gave his undefeated 3-year-old filly Please Flatter Me her first workout in a month Sunday at Pimlico. He now plans to gear her up for the $250,000 Busher Invitational, a one-mile race on March 9 at Aqueduct.
Please Flatter Me, a Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Munnings, breezed a half-mile in 50.40 seconds in her first timed exercise since an easy 5 3/4-length victory in the Gin Talking Stakes on Dec. 29 at Laurel Park.
