In a surprising development, trainer Bob Baffert on Tuesday said there is a very good chance his top two Kentucky Derby prospects, Game Winner and Improbable, will make their 3-year-old debuts against one another in the Grade 2, $500,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 9 at Santa Anita.
“I have a feeling they’ll both be in there,” Baffert said. “It might be Clemson vs. Alabama.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockeys Felipe Martinez and J.C. Diaz Jr. will serve three-day suspensions beginning this week for riding infractions at Santa Anita earlier this month.
Martinez was cited for failing to maintain a straight course on Annitasheaven on the backstretch of the seventh race on Feb. 16. Annitasheaven was near the front early, but faded to finish last of eight at 66-1. The stewards conducted an inquiry into the running but did not change the order of finish because Annitasheaven was ruled to have caused the interference.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Despite her last-place finish in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday, trainer John Shirreffs is not ready to give up on Paradise Woods.
Paradise Woods broke from the rail in a field of five. She raced on the inside throughout and faded from contention in the stretch to finish 8 3/4 lengths behind winner Marley’s Freedom, the odds-on favorite.
“I think the post position compromised us,” Shirreffs said earlier this week. “It was hard to reach any conclusions.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza made his comeback on Monday, finishing second on his first mount since suffering a spinal injury in training accident at Del Mar last July. Espinoza said his goal this weekend is to fully resume normal activity, working horses in the morning and riding races in the afternoon.
Espinoza admits he is starting from scratch after a lengthy absence. With the major races of the spring looming, he is eager to get started. Espinoza does not have any mounts on Friday or Saturday.
NEW ORLEANS – Monomoy Girl, champion 3-year-old filly of 2018, worked for the first time in 2019 when she breezed three furlongs in 37 seconds Sunday morning at Fair Grounds. Monomoy Girl picked up her pace in the homestretch after going at a two-minute-per-mile clip, and she breezed from the quarter pole past the wire and out to the seven-furlong marker, according to trainer Brad Cox.
“Really good,” Cox said.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Mike Stidham believed Synchrony was going into Saturday’s Fair Grounds Handicap as well as in 2018, when he scored a breakout win in the race, and from all appearances Stidham was right.
Racing wide in the homestretch, over the worst part of the Fair Grounds grass course Saturday, Synchrony still stormed to a 1 1/4-length victory racing as the 121-pound highweight. He got a 100 Beyer Speed Figure, two points off his winning figure in the same race last year.
NEW ORLEANS – Back in early 2017 at Oaklawn Park, Silver Dust briefly threatened to break into Triple Crown candidacy. Two years, a trainer change, gelding, and a whole lot of schooling later, Silver Dust broke through with his first stakes win, capturing the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap on Saturday.
Five-year-old Silver Dust, owned by Tom Durant, has the pedigree of a stallion, but as trainer Bret Calhoun said, he’d never even have gotten to this point had he not been gelded last summer.
NEW ORLEANS – Tom Amoss sought transparency in the week leading to the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes. Serengeti Empress, Amoss’s and owner Joel Politi’s entry in the race, had only three published works since returning to Amoss’s barn in late December following a post-Breeders’ Cup break in Florida. Serengeti Empress, Amoss said, would be better next month in the Fair Grounds Oaks than she would be in the Rachel Alexandra.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are 25 horses nominated to Saturday’s Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, and five are from trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn. On Sunday, Pletcher confirmed he plans to run two of the five, Copper Town and Prince Lucky, in the one-mile fixture for older horses.
Copper Town is coming off a seventh-place finish as the 3-2 favorite over a sloppy track in the Grade 3 Fred Hooper here, while Prince Lucky has not started since winning the Easy Goer last June at Belmont Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Dale Romans caught a little lightning in a bottle when his 16-1 Promises Fulfilled upset the 2018 Fountain of Youth. He’ll defend that title here a week from Saturday with another longshot, the lightly raced Admire.
Admire has started just three times. He won his maiden at second asking going 1 1/8 miles over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs in his 2-year-old finale on Nov. 24. He opened his 3-year-old campaign by finishing fifth, beaten 5 1/2 lengths by Tax as an 18-1 outsider in the Grade 3 Withers earlier this month at Aqueduct.
