HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of allowance races highlight Sunday’s 11-race program, the final card of 2017 season, including a second-level allowance/optional $50,000 claimer to be decided at 1 1/16 miles on the turf for a $61,000 purse.
The main event attracted a well-matched field of 10 horses, led by Chunnel, whose three-race win streak came to a halt over the main track in the Claiming Crown Jewel; the Mike Maker-trained duo of War Stroll and Flashy Chelsey; Blue Harbor; and Tasit.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice said she is considering running both Do Share and Seymourdini in the Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan at Aqueduct on Jan. 27. The Toboggan is now at seven furlongs after previously being run at six.
Do Share won last Saturday’s $100,000 Gravesend and will scratch from Saturday’s $100,000 Dave’s Friend Stakes at Laurel Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Jose Ortiz wasted little time announcing his presence at Gulfstream this winter by winning with his first mount at the Championship meet, Shar Ran ($6), in Thursday’s opener.
Shar Ran was the first horse Ortiz had ridden since undergoing knee surgery earlier this month. He inherited the mount from Julien Leparoux, who returned to Kentucky earlier this week for the birth of his second child.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The $100,000 Bay Ridge, which did not have enough entries to be carded for Friday, as scheduled, did draw a field of five New York-bred fillies and mares on Friday and will now be run on Monday’s New Year’s Day program.
Holiday Disguise, trained by Linda Rice, was a surprise entrant in the Bay Ridge, run at 1 1/8 miles, as she was expected to run in next Saturday’s La Verdad Stakes at seven furlongs. Holiday Disguise has not run beyond seven furlongs and has not raced since winning the Bouwerie Stakes on May 29.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Owner Ron Lombardi and trainer Jason Servis have a very simple and logical explanation for keeping Kentucky Derby prospect Firenze Fire in New York this winter.
“Ron and I talked about it, and he thought New York was the softest path to the Derby, and I agreed with him,” Servis said.
Weather permitting, New York’s path to the Kentucky Derby is scheduled to begin Monday with the $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct, and Firenze Fire was one of eight horses entered Friday for the one-turn mile.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There is never a shortage of bad-beat stories when horseplayers gather, but it would be difficult to match the tale one unknown player can now tell following a bizarre incident that took place approaching the wire in Thursday’s finale at Gulfstream.
Fernando De La Cruz, who is riding at Tampa Bay Downs, plans to winter at the Oaklawn Park meet that opens Jan. 12 in Hot Springs, Ark. Tony King, who will be his agent, said the rider was due to arrive in Arkansas sometime Tuesday.
“He’s going to ride through Sunday at Tampa, and then he’s going to come straight in,” King said. “He’ll be available for training on Wednesday.”
King said De La Cruz’s scheduled arrival is weather permitting. Oaklawn, because of extreme winter weather, canceled training Friday.
Jockey Florent Geroux will be off his mounts at Fair Grounds through at least Monday following the death of his father, Dominique Geroux. The elder Geroux died Friday morning in France, according to Doug Bredar, agent for Florent Geroux.
Florent Geroux last rode Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds, leaving for France after the first few races to tend to his father, who he learned fell on Christmas Day. Dominique Geroux was 67 and a former jockey and trainer, Bredar said. He died in his hometown of Amiens, about 75 miles north of Paris.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Smokey Image, who was entered for Saturday’s Grade 3 Midnight Lute Stakes for sprinters, is likely to start instead in Monday’s $75,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita, trainer Carla Gaines said.
The Hernandez Stakes is run at about 6 1/2 furlongs and is the main race on the New Year’s Day program.
ARCADIA, Calif. – California trainer Ron Ellis is disbanding his stable this weekend in advance of the start of a 60-day suspension that begins on Monday. Ellis was suspended because a horse he trained, Masochistic, tested positive for a steroid after finishing second in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita.
Ellis has approximately 25 horses at Santa Anita, according to track officials. Ellis said on Friday that some of his horses will be transferred to Southern California trainers Blake Heap, Brian Koriner, and Gerard Piccioni, while others will be sent out of state.
