HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn racing secretary Pat Pope anticipates a field of 10 to 12 for the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes on Monday. The maximum gate for the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds – which carries eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby – is 14.
Gray Attempt, the winner of the $150,000 Smarty Jones last month at Oaklawn, is being pointed for the Southwest, according to trainer Jinks Fires. He is to be ridden by Shaun Bridgmohan.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Breeders’ Cup winner Shamrock Rose was scheduled to arrive at Oaklawn Park on Thursday for an intended start in the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri, trainer Mark Casse said. The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares is March 16.
Shamrock Rose won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. Earlier in her career, she won a pair of stakes at two turns and was second to Wonder Gadot going 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3 Mazarine at Woodbine.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Chasing Yesterday, the winner of the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos in December, worked six furlongs in 1:13.20 at Santa Anita on Wednesday.
Trained by Bob Baffert for Summer Wind Equine, Chasing Yesterday was entered in Saturday’s Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes at Fair Grounds, but will not be sent to that race. Baffert said on Wednesday that he is “thinking about some things” for Chasing Yesterday’s 2019 debut. He said one possibility is the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on March 10.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Escape Clause has shown in recent months that she can be competitive in Southern California. The next month will reveal how effective Escape Clause can be in what will be her toughest assignments.
Saturday, Escape Clause will start in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs at Santa Anita, the most prestigious race of her career. Owner and trainer Don Schnell is hoping Escape Clause can use the $200,000 Santa Monica as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on March 16.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Tom Amoss sends out Lone Sailor and Serengeti Empress for their seasonal unveiling Saturday at Fair Grounds, but what lies behind the veil isn’t yet entirely certain.
Lone Sailor starts in the Grade 3, $150,000 Mineshaft Handicap, his first race since he essentially ran to form in finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Serengeti Empress runs in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra, her first start since she ran well below her best form in finishing a distant seventh in the BC Juvenile Fillies.
NEW ORLEANS – Were she, say, 10 percent less talented, the filly Needs Supervision, along with her trainer, Jerry O’Dwyer, would be shivering against the cold up in Maryland right now. Instead, horse and trainer have been in New Orleans for more than four weeks, cutting a trail toward what O’Dwyer hopes will be a start in the Kentucky Oaks.
Next stop is Saturday, when Needs Supervision starts in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes.
In yet another example of the emphasis of turf racing in New York, the New York Racing Association is instituting what it calls the Turf Triple Series, which consists of three turf races for 3-year-old males and three for females.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Twice in the last four years and five times since 1996 Bob Baffert has trained the winner of the Kentucky Derby.
He has done it with horses who were brilliant at 2 and trained on like Silver Charm; a wiry colt who needed plenty of racing to find his best form in Real Quiet; a late acquisition like War Emblem; a champion at 2 who repeated at 3 in American Pharoah; and, in Justify last year, a horse who at this point in the calendar hadn’t even started.
Two of them, American Pharoah and Justify, went on to sweep the Triple Crown.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Kentucky Wildcat, the promising colt who was vanned off following a runner-up finish last Saturday in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, underwent surgery Monday in Ocala, Fla., to repair a condylar fracture to his right foreleg, according to Jimmy Bell, president of U.S. operations for Godolphin, the colt’s owner-breeder.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Breeding season dovetails with the Gulfstream Park championship meet, which partly explains why plans for Tequilita are fluid. The 5-year-old mare has fared particularly well at Gulfstream, leading trainer Michael Matz to make out her schedule in pencil, not ink.
Matz said Tequilita will run Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Royal Delta at Gulfstream and then March 16 in the Inside Information.
“After that, whether or not we go any further depends on how she does in those two races,” he said.
