Holly Dolly, who is tied for winningest horse of the current meet at Remington Park, is being pointed to an upcoming stakes at Zia and later this year will winter at Oaklawn Park, according to her trainer, Ray Ashford Jr.
Ashford will have a division of about 10 horses at Oaklawn for the first time and said he is setting up shop at the Arkansas meet at the request of prominent owner Tom Durant.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though he’s won more than 4,700 races in his career, trainer Chris Englehart doesn’t fancy himself as one who does well with first-time starters.
However, on Nov. 8 he sent out the 2-year-old filly Lucille Ball to a 5 1/4-length debut victory going 6 1/2 furlongs at Aqueduct. She covered the distance in 1:17.23 and earned a solid 82 Beyer Speed Figure.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Be Your Best, the nose winner of Sunday’s Grade 3 Long Island Stakes at Aqueduct, arrived in South Florida on Wednesday and will be considered for a start in the Grade 2, $500,000 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf on Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park, owner/breeder Mike Ryan said Wednesday.
After 12 tries in graded company, Be Your Best finally got her first graded stakes victory, holding off No Show Sammy Jo by a nose in the Long Island. Be Your Best, as a 2-year-old, won the ungraded P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga.
The trickle of horses leaving California continues. Graded stakes-placed Justique and Mc Vay have been transferred from California trainer John Shirreffs and are now trained in Kentucky by Cherie DeVaux. Justique and Mc Vay are owned by Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable.
DEL MAR, Calif – Sugar Fish, a Grade 2 winner who was one of the surprise 3-year-old fillies in California this season, will cut back to one turn for her final start of the year following a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Trainer Jeff Mullins said Sugar Fish will target the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes, a seven-furlong stakes for 3-year-old fillies traditionally run Dec. 26, opening day of the Santa Anita winter meet.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Tamara will use an allowance sprint Friday at Del May to prep for the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies traditionally run Dec. 26, opening day of Santa Anita winter. Tamara, runaway winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante in 2023 before finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and emerging with a splint injury, is scheduled for her first start in more than a year on Friday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The runaway win by Big City Lights in the $98,000 Cary Grant Stakes on Saturday at Del Mar was the 77th Del Mar stakes win for trainer Richard Mandella, tying him for third with Ron McAnally. Bob Baffert has the most Del Mar stakes wins with 178, with John Sadler trailing him in second with 86.
Mandella could add to his total in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Stakes on Nov. 30. Sumter and Seal Team, first and fifth last out in the Lure Stakes, a restricted turf mile at Santa Anita, are targeting the 1 1/16-mile Seabiscuit.
Ellen Jay, who has gone 3 for 3 on turf including a victory in the Glen Cove Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 18, is expected to be heading back to the dirt for her next start.
The daughter of Constitution and the first foal out of the champion female sprinter Covfefe, Ellen Jay is targeting the $100,000 Safely Kept Stakes at Laurel on Nov. 30, according to Dustin Dugas, assistant trainer to Brad Cox.
In 37 years of training horses, Linda Rice has never started a horse at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
That’s about to change.
Rice confirmed Sunday that she plans to open up a small stable at Fair Grounds at the 2024-25 meet that begins on Nov. 22. Rice said the stable, numbering six or so horses, will be comprised mostly of turf horses that she wasn’t ready to turn out for the winter.
“Rather than shut them down, I thought we’d find a spot to go with them, experiment, and see how it goes,” Rice said.
