Sam Houston launches its Quarter Horse meet Friday night with 11 trials for the Sam Houston Maiden Classic. The 20-date season will run through May 12. The highlight of the meet is the Grade 2 Sam Houston Futurity on April 28.
Sam Houston will race on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The track introduced Monday afternoon racing for Quarter Horses two years ago, and it has proven to be a good fit, said Frank Hopf, senior director of racing operations for Sam Houston.
It took just 10 points to make the Kentucky Derby field in 2013, at least 20 in 2014 and 2015, and at least 30 the past two years. This is now the sixth year that Churchill Downs has utilized a points list to determine the 20-horse field for the Derby – replacing earnings in graded stakes – and the number of points required to gain entry could continue to rise, owing to more interest from overseas runners, putting several well-regarded horses based in this country in jeopardy of not making the field.
Trainer Dale Romans on Wednesday entered Promises Fulfilled and Storm Runner in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. After briefly considering running a third horse, Romans decided to point King Zachary to the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 7.
King Zachary, a son of Curlin, is coming off an eye-catching 7 3/4-length maiden victory at Gulfstream on March 18. The Florida Derby, Romans said, would have been too soon after that race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Fernando Perez, who has not ridden since December 2016, continues to face health problems related to a concussion and bleeding on the brain from an injury sustained in a workout, leaving doubt as to whether he can return to riding.
Perez, a visitor to Santa Anita during training hours last weekend, said he remains on medication and that doctors have expressed concern about potential seizures. He said he has suffered occasional short-term memory loss.
“The doctor said to take it easy,” Perez said.
Imperial Hint won his 5-year-old debut as easily as he pleased Sunday, setting him up for what trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. hopes is a championship year.
Imperial Hint, owned by Raymond Mamone, was a five-length winner of the $100,000 Florida Cup Sprint on the 16th annual Florida Cup program Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs. Carvajal said he has planned two more works for Imperial Hint before shipping him around April 20 to Kentucky for the Grade 2 Churchill Downs on the May 5 Kentucky Derby undercard.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Lombo, the winner of the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 3, will revert to sprints after finishing seventh in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 10.
Trainer Mike Pender said recently that Lombo should be more competitive in shorter races. Lombo finished 21 1/2 lengths behind top finishers McKinzie and Bolt d’Oro in the San Felipe. Those runners are considered the two leading 3-year-olds in the nation.
“I think I’ll go back to sprinting,” Pender said. “We took on the best the West Coast has to offer and they swallowed him whole.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Few apprentice jockeys have the sort of coaching that Asa Espinoza is enjoying this winter at Santa Anita.
Espinoza, 18, is the nephew of jockey Victor Espinoza, the regular rider of such famous runners as American Pharoah and California Chrome in recent years. Asa Espinoza began riding earlier this year and had three wins through Sunday, including the first two-win day of his career last Saturday.
The younger Espinoza is never far from his uncle. Asa is living with Victor, who shares advice on riding techniques and strategies.
The New York Racing Association will give fans purchasing tickets to the Belmont Stakes before May 18 a chance to win $150,000 in the Belmont Stakes Sweepstakes.
Each ticket purchased for Belmont Stakes Day before May 18 will earn the buyer an entry into the sweepstakes. Patrons who have already purchased tickets will be retroactively entered. Each person is limited to 12 entries.
Rudy Rodriguez has been sending out winners at a heady clip since he began training in 2010 and comes into the Friday card at Aqueduct one shy of his 1,000th victory. Yet he is anything but an overnight success story.
After immigrating to the United States from his native Mexico in 1988, Rodriguez’s first job came in the groves and fields of Florida. On the advice of his brother Jesus, he came to the racetrack and took a job as a hotwalker.
“I spent one season picking oranges, cucumbers, whatever they had,” he said.
