The promising 3-year-old Diamond King was scratched from the Private Terms Stakes with a fever March 17, but he never became very ill and quickly resumed training. He worked a mile for trainer John Servis in 1:47.60 at Parx Racing on March 24.
“The work was excellent, he’s doing very good,” Servis said. “His fever got up to about 102, but he fought it off. We never did treat him for it.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Luis Saez continued his dominance of the Gulfstream Park Championship meet, winning seven races from eight mounts on Thursday’s 11-race card, equaling a single-day record for the South Florida track.
His only loss came by a neck.
It was the second time this meet Saez won seven races on a card, having done so on Jan. 24 when he went 7 for 9. Jerry Bailey in 1996 established the record and Tyler Gaffalione equaled it last July.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Violent Ridge, who was second in the California Cup Derby for statebreds on Feb. 19, sustained a cut on a foreleg in a recent workout and will not start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 7, trainer Hector Palma said on Thursday.
The injury required sutures to close the wound and will cost Violent Ridge three weeks of training, Palma said.
Violent Ridge, owned by BG Stables, won an allowance race for California-breds at a mile on March 11.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Paradise Woods, a two-time Grade 1 winner, emerged from her fourth in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday with a sore foot, trainer Richard Mandella said.
Mandella said Paradise Woods will be pointed for the Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares on June 2, with a possible start in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on May 6.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The stakes schedule for the Del Mar summer meeting, July 18 to Sept. 3, comprises 41 races with minimal changes from the 2017 season. The distances and conditions of four 2-year-old stakes are among the most prominent differences.
Two Grade 2 stakes for 2-year-olds – the Best Pal for both sexes and the Sorrento for fillies – have been shortened from 6 1/2 furlongs to six furlongs. The races are worth $200,000 each and lead to two Grade 1 races at seven furlongs on Labor Day weekend – the Del Mar Futurity and the Del Mar Debutante.
Enhanced security protocols will be in place for the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 7 at Aqueduct, according to a press release issued by the New York Gaming Commission and the New York Racing Association on Thursday.
According to the release, the protocols were triggered by a purse increase to $1 million from $750,000 because a Grade 1 winner is participating in the race. Firenze Fire, winner of last year’s Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont, is scheduled to run in the Wood.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Todd Pletcher will not only be trying to win his fifth Florida Derby on Saturday, he will also be seeking his fifth victory in the Gulfstream Park Mile. This year, he will be attempting to win the Gulfstream Park Mile with last year’s Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby winner, Always Dreaming.
Always Dreaming, away from the races since a ninth-place finish in last August’s Travers at Saratoga, will face five opponents in the Grade 2, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Mile, one of six undercard stakes on Saturday’s 14-race Florida Derby program.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With Davona Dale Stakes winner Fly So High sidelined by injury and the talented Monomoy Girl heading to the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland on April 7, Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks drew a bulky field of 13 3-year-old fillies.
The race drew the top three finishers from the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs – C. S. Incharge, Daisy, and Mihrab – as well as Davona Dale runner-up Take Charge Paula.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Bullards Alley has already made two trips from Fair Grounds to Gulfstream Park this winter, finishing second in the H. Allen Jerkens and third in the W.L. McKnight. Saturday, he will take on Sadler’s Joy, Bigger Picture, and six others in the Grade 2, $250,000 Pan American at 1 1/2 miles on turf. Sadler’s Joy won last year’s Pan Am.
Bullards Alley is getting a rider switch to Irad Ortiz Jr., replacing Paco Lopez, who was aboard for Bullards Alley’s two prior races here.
Trainer John Terranova’s barn at Belmont Park houses the 2017 Arkansas-bred of the Year.
Heavenly Score will be honored with that title Friday night during the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Horsemen’s Association annual awards banquet. She led all Arkansas-breds in earnings last year with $222,750.
Heavenly Score went 4 for 10 last year, with all of her starts coming in New York. She was a maiden special weight winner last January at Aqueduct, then won allowances at Saratoga, Belmont, and Aqueduct. Heavenly Score also finished second in the Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct.
