Trainer Ignacio Correas answered his phone Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs, where he has settled in for the winter after a strong fall on the Kentucky circuit. Later the same day, his star mare Dona Bruja raced in the Matriarch at Del Mar. These all are places one might associate with Correas.
Louisiana? Not so much. But Correas has two live chances for Saturday’s Louisiana Champions Day program.
Seeking the Soul, a sharp second to City of Light in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and third on Nov. 23 in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs, has several 2019 options including the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, trainer Dallas Stewart said Sunday.
Seeking the Soul finished fifth, beaten 14 lengths by victorious Gun Runner, in the 2018 Pegasus.
Seeking the Soul has gotten into a steady training rhythm at Fair Grounds, but Stewart said that he and owner Chuck Fipke “don’t have a plan.”
The 2-year-old filly Liora didn’t run especially fast in her most recent start, but she ran fast enough to score a narrow victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes, Churchill Downs’s most important 2-year-old filly race of the year outside the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies this season.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jockey Eurico Da Silva and trainer Norm McKnight both set Woodbine meet records for wins over the weekend with eight race dates left in the season.
On Saturday, Da Silva broke Mickey Walls’s 1991 record of 221 wins in a single Woodbine meet when he captured the 10th race at Woodbine with Souciologist for his 222nd win of the meeting. Da Silva added another winner on Sunday to finish the weekend with 223 wins on the meet.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although he won’t run again until the $9 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 26, Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up Gunnevera will be back on the work tab once again starting this Saturday his trainer, Antonio Sano, said over the weekend.
“He’s just so sharp right now I have to do something with him, even though his next race will be the Pegasus and not for another eight weeks or so,” said Sano.
Vibrance, third-place finisher in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last time out, will seek her first Grade 1 victory on Saturday at Los Alamitos in the Starlet Stakes, in which her rivals will include Chasing Yesterday, the half-sister to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
Vibrance had her final work for the Starlet on Sunday at Santa Anita, when she went five furlongs in 1:01.60.
“Fantastic,” trainer Michael McCarthy said of the work. “Really pleased with how she’s doing.”
City of Light, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile one month ago, returned to the work tab Sunday at Santa Anita with a half-mile drill in 48.80 seconds under exercise rider Norman Rodriguez as he began preparation for his next scheduled start, the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26.
Michael McCarthy, who trains City of Light, anticipated waiting a little longer to give City of Light a work, but City of Light had something else to say.
“The horse had been asking to work for a week or 10 days, and so went ahead and obliged,” McCarthy said.
After passing her first test going one mile in Saturday’s Grade 3 Go for Wand, Marley’s Freedom will likely get a test around two turns for her next start.
Trainer Bob Baffert, via text on Sunday, indicated that Marley’s Freedom will be considered for the Grade 2, $200,000 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 12. The La Canada is run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns.
Marley’s Freedom earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for her Go for Wand victory, which came by a neck over Come Dancing.
Trainer Rodolphe Brisset will be a man on the move this week, but his Demoiselle winner, Positive Spirit, will be taking it easy in New York for a few days before shipping to Payson Park in Florida to prepare for her 3-year-old campaign.
Brisset stopped by Belmont Park to check on Positive Spirit before he flew to Del Mar to saddle Mission Impassible in the Grade 1 Matriarch. Brisset will then be at Fair Grounds on Tuesday and Lexington on Wednesday before heading to Payson himself.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Maximus Mischief, winner of the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Saturday, returned to Parx Racing on Saturday night but will soon leave for South Florida where he will likely have two starts in preparation for a planned start in the Kentucky Derby on May 4.
Maximus Mischief scored a front-running, 2 1/4-length victory in the Remsen to remain undefeated in three starts. It was his first start around two turns and first at 1 1/8 miles.
Trainer Butch Reid said Maximus Mischief was a bit tired but otherwise came out of the race in good order.
