HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Racing resumes Wednesday following the only dark day of the week with a 10-race card that features a trio of first-level allowance and optional-claiming races, all three to be decided for a purse of $51,000.
The most intriguing of the afternoon’s co-features is the ninth event, carded at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds and what looks like a battle between a pair of recent graduates, Impact Player and Septimius Severus.
One of the more highly regarded prospects for the 144th Kentucky Derby, Catholic Boy, was sent through his first breeze of the year last weekend as trainer Jonathan Thomas begins pointing the colt to his 3-year-old debut in the Feb. 10 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Catholic Boy went an easy half-mile in 49.20 seconds Friday at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla., in his first serious move since the colt won the Grade 2 Remsen by 4 3/4 lengths Dec. 2 at Aqueduct.
Fields are taking shape for the three stakes that comprise the Skyway Festival Day program Saturday at Tampa. The $125,000 Pasco Stakes, which usually produces a starter for two for the Sam F. Davis Stakes (Feb. 10), is expected to have at least three stakes winners in its lineup of 3-year-olds – He Hate Me, Driven by History, and Awaken.
Leading jockey Antonio Gallardo won three races Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs, marking the sixth time in the last 11 racing days the 30-year-old Spaniard has racked up a three-bagger.
Gallardo, who dominated the Tampa jockey colony for three straight years before opting to ride elsewhere last winter, is back in a familiar spot atop the 2017-18 meet standings. Into Wednesday, he topped all riders in starts (154), wins (35), and mount earnings ($544,750).
NEW ORLEANS – There were two sides to Gun Runner’s six-furlong workout Sunday at Fair Grounds.
On one end, Gun Runner put in a strong six-furlong drill, breaking off a length behind his regular work-mate Gettysburg, passing him at the quarter-pole and going six furlongs in a fast 1:11. Gun Runner’s splits, on the watch of Fair Grounds clocker Mike Diliberto, were 12.60, 24.20, 36.20, 48.20, and 59.40. Jockey Florent Geroux urged Gun Runner past the wire and out around the clubhouse turn, and Gun Runner galloped out seven furlongs in a strong 1:23.80, then got a mile in 1:37.
Solomini, disqualified from victory last month in the CashCall Futurity at Los Alamitos, was scheduled to make his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3, $150,000 Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 3, but it looks like he’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for another spot after spiking a slight temperature Saturday.
“He was scheduled to work yesterday,” trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday morning, “but he got a little temperature yesterday. He’s going to miss about five or six days. Until then I was going to run him in the Lewis.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – West Coast, the likely second choice to Gun Runner in the upcoming Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27, had his last major drill for that race Sunday morning at Santa Anita, where he went six furlongs from the gate in 1:12 under jockey Drayden Van Dyke.
West Coast is scheduled for one more – easier – work at Santa Anita before departing for Florida on Jan. 24, three days before the Pegasus, but this was his last serious work. He went in company, and Van Dyke slapped him twice right-handed crossing the wire to encourage him to go out farther.
Cedartown won his second stakes in a row, taking the $75,000 Louisiana Stakes at Fair Grounds on Saturday by 2 lengths and taking another step toward his connections' goal of getting to the New Orleans Handicap.
Cedartown, who swooped past favored The Player at the top of the stretch, beat Scuba by two lengths and ran 1 1/16 miles on dirt in 1:44.18, earning a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure. In his previous race, he had gotten a 96 Beyer winning the Zia Park Derby by 1 3/4 lengths over Untrapped.
NEW ORLEANS – Instilled Regard had his head out of his stall and nipped at a passerby’s sweater Sunday morning, the day after he won the Lecomte Stakes here at Fair Grounds, and the positive signs he gave appeared backed up by what trainer Jerry Hollendorfer had seen earlier in the day.
“We looked at him early this morning, jogged him down the road,” Hollendorfer said. “He ate good last night. We’re happy with how he came out of it.”
