OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Like the relentless nor’easters that seem to be arriving on a weekly basis, jockey Manny Franco has been pummeling his competition this month at Aqueduct.
In eight racing days here in March, Franco has 20 wins from 63 mounts. He won a personal-best five races on the March 9 card at Aqueduct and nearly duplicated the feat on Sunday, winning four times before losing the last race by the slimmest of noses.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Rafael Bejarano sustained a broken left wrist after an accident in the final race Sunday at Santa Anita and will be out of action for at least three to four weeks, his agent, Tora Yamaguchi, reported Monday morning.
“Rafael most likely fell onto an outstretched arm and suffered a radius fracture,” Yamaguchi said. “The good thing is that it’s not displaced, but he will have to miss at least three to four weeks.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The graded stakes-winning filly Spectator returned to the races with a game victory in an allowance race Sunday at Santa Anita and has several options for moving back into stakes company, trainer Phil D’Amato said after the race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has confirmed what already had been suspected, that Grade 3 Withers winner Avery Island is now officially off the Derby trail after returning lame from a routine workout at Palm Meadows last Friday.
McLaughlin sent Avery Island to Rood and Riddle Clinic in Kentucky for further evaluation earlier this week.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Last year’s Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly Caledonia Road continues to progress toward her 3-year-old debut, but trainer Ralph Nicks said he still has no definite plans regarding when or where that might be. Caledonia Road, who has not raced since her convincing victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 4, has had four works at Palm Meadows since returning to training earlier this winter. She fired a bullet half-mile in 48.35 seconds, the best of 35 at the distance, at the training center last Thursday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With only 11 3-year-olds nominated to Saturday’s $100,000 Hutcheson, the racing office will have its work cut out just getting the race to fill. It can, however, count on at least two names being in the box when entries are taken for the Grade 3 dash on Wednesday: Soutache, for trainer Ralph Nicks, and Impact Player, for Todd Pletcher.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ivy Bell has no bigger fan than her former owner Brook Smith. Over the winter, Smith sold Ivy Bell for an undisclosed price to the partnership of Mathis Stable and Madaket Stables after the daughter of Archarcharch had established herself as an up-and-coming sprinter in Kentucky.
Making her first start Saturday since being turned over to Todd Pletcher, Ivy Bell won the Grade 2 Inside Information at Gulfstream, earning a career-high 90 Beyer Speed Figure and stamping herself as a hot prospect in the national filly-mare sprint division.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Elate, a 2017 Eclipse Award finalist for top 3-year-old filly, is ready to resume serious training at Payson Park under Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott after a minor setback.
“She popped a splint,” said Walker Hancock, whose family’s Claiborne Farm bred and owns Elate with Adele Dilschneider. “It’s very minor. She’s about to start back again. It was just a little hold-up.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – World of Trouble finished a good third as the favorite in the March 10 Tampa Bay Derby, but that’s not enough to keep the speedy colt on the Kentucky Derby trail.
“We’re going to shorten him up, I think,” said Jason Servis, who trains World of Trouble for Michael Dubb and Bethlehem Stables. “My gut feeling is he’ll get 1 1/16 miles, maybe even farther, but not at this stage of his life.”
