Trainer Steve Asmussen’s third win at Fair Grounds Saturday came with Hall of Fame, who captured the Grade 3, $250,000 Mineshaft Stakes by a head over Komorebino Omoide. It was the first stakes win for the improving 4-year-old. 

Not only did Magnitude run fast, but he recovered fast as well.

Magnitude, performing more like a 4-5 shot than the 43-1 chance that he was, blitzed the Risen Star Stakes early Saturday evening at Fair Grounds, scoring a front-running, 9 3/4-length victory while clocking 1:48.85. It was the fastest among seven Risen Stars since the race was extended from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/8 miles in 2020, when the race attracted so many entries it was split into two divisions. 

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sunday’s eight-race live program at Aqueduct has been canceled due to forecasted high winds associated with a winter storm that was expected to bring day-long rain to the New York City metropolitan area on Sunday, the New York Racing Association announced Saturday afternoon.

The change to rain was expected to happen Saturday evening after approximately an inch of snow fell in the area Saturday afternoon.

Though temperatures on Sunday were forecasted to be in the low 50s, the winds were forecast between 20 to 30 miles per hour, according to weather.com.

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., canceled its final five races on Saturday after extensive rainfall in the area. The track plans to race on Sunday and also is scheduled to race on Monday.

Oaklawn had canceled training Saturday morning due to the rainfall, but was able to race as scheduled. The horses were in the track’s indoor paddock for the sixth race – saddled and with riders by their sides – when a weather delay developed as the rains were raging outside.

With the Angels, winner of all four of her starts at 2 in 2024, returned to the work tab Saturday at Belmont Park going a half-mile in 51.75 seconds over the training track. 

With the Angels is preparing for a 3-year-old campaign that likely won’t begin until May or June, trainer Linda Rice said, owing in part to the lack of stakes for options for 3-year-old fillies in New York. The Bouwerie, for New York-breds, likely to be run at Saratoga during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival the first week of June, could be a possible spot for With the Angels. 

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The 3-year-old My Mitole is likely headed to a stakes race after winning a starter allowance Friday at Aqueduct by 5 1/4 lengths. 

While trainer Carlos Martin nominated My Mitole to the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes going one mile at Aqueduct on March 1, he is not enamored with the idea of wheeling him back in two weeks. Martin did mention the $500,000 Virginia Derby, a one-turn, 1 1/8-mile dirt race at Colonial Downs on March 15 as something that could be intriguing. 

Simply Joking, who has begun her career with two stakes wins and is an early Kentucky Oaks hopeful, was scratched from an intended start in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds. 

Her trainer, Whit Beckman, said in a text message that Simply Joking was off her feed Thursday. Blood tests returned Friday showed that Simply Joking was fighting an illness, which led to the scratch. 

“Caught it early but bad timing for sure,” Beckman said. 

Tizzy in the Sky, who last month won the Ladies Stakes by three lengths at Aqueduct, has been retired from racing and will be bred to Not This Time, owner Donnie Orenstein said Friday.

Following the Ladies, the tentative plan was to run Tizzy in the Sky one more time in the Azeri Stakes on March 8 at Oaklawn Park. That race became less appealing when the connections of reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna announced their intention for that filly to make her 4-year-old debut in that spot.

Richard T. DeStasio, who trained multiple Grade 1 winners during his career, died Thursday at his home in Coconut Creek, Fla., at the age of 94, after a battle with dementia.

Among the top horses DeStasio trained were Silver Supreme, who, in 1982, won the Grade 1 Brooklyn and Grade 2 Massachusetts Handicap; Tina Tina Too, the Grade 1 Ladies Handicap winner, and Irish Martini, the 1981 Belmont Futurity winner.

Trainer Jamey Thomas will have a stable based at Emerald Downs in Washington state for the first time this year, a result of the absence of racing in Northern California.

Thomas said on Wednesday that he will send “20 to 25” horses to Emerald Downs, while keeping a small number of runners in Southern California. The stable will relocate to Emerald Downs in coming weeks, Thomas said.

“Most of the horses will go to Washington and I’ll have five or six at Santa Anita that will fit there,” he said.