Jockey Luis Quinonez is positioned to have a memorable closing weekend at Remington Park. He will enter the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame on Friday night, and on Sunday has mounts in five of the card’s six stakes, including the $400,000 Springboard Mile.
Quinonez will team with Kingsville in the Springboard Mile. The race drew a full gate of 12, including Greyvitos, winner of the Grade 3 Bob Hope at Del Mar.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Intimidate lost his unbeaten record with a dreadful trip in the Golden Nugget Stakes at Golden Gate Fields. From trainer Bob Hess Sr.’s recollection, the situation could have been much worse. Intimidate was crowded severely at the start.
“We were lucky he didn’t go down,” Hess said. “It wasn’t very good. He lost all chance.”
Masochistic, a multiple stakes winner who has not raced since May, is nearing his first start for trainer Bob Baffert.
Masochistic has been working steadily and could return in the Grade 3 Midnight Lute Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 30, Baffert said earlier this week. The $100,000 Midnight Lute Stakes is run at 6 1/2 furlongs on dirt.
“We’re sort of looking at the Midnight Lute,” Baffert said. “We’ll see how the next few weeks go.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tap to It, who has started just twice since finishing sixth in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, will return locally to face seven other fillies and mares in Friday’s $50,000 main event, to be decided at seven furlongs under entry-level allowance conditions.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Curlin’s Approval will look to rebound from a disappointing performance in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint when she stretches out to a mile for Saturday’s Grade 3 Rampart at Gulfstream.
A Grade 2 winner here earlier in the year, Curlin’s Approval will face six rivals, including the multiple Grade 2 winner Lewis Bay, who makes her first start since finishing second in the Grade 3 Comely at Aqueduct nearly 13 months earlier.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Who was the hottest trainer on the East Coast last weekend?
The standard answers of Todd Pletcher or Mark Casse would be good ones. Pletcher won three races, including the Smooth Air Stakes here with Bal Harbor, while Casse registered a pair of stakes wins, one at Gulfstream with Miss Mo Mentum and one on closing day at Woodbine last Sunday.
But the correct response to the question would be Gary Gullo, who sent out six consecutive winners from Friday through Sunday, four at Aqueduct and two at Gulfstream, Alaskan Prince and Final Flurry.
Apprentice rider Jenn Miller has been released from the Winchester Medical Center in Virginia and admitted to the Medstar National Rehabilitation Center in Washington D.C.
Miller, 32, was thrown when her mount Green Time broke down just past the finish line in the second race at Charles Town on Nov. 25. She was kicked in the face by a trailing horse and is recovering from a serious concussion.
Weston Hamilton came into the Monday card at Laurel Park 0 for 9 as a professional jockey. He ended the day 2 for 11 after winning with both his mounts.
Hamilton, 19, is the son of Steve “Cowboy” Hamilton, a winner of more than 1,300 races who is sixth in the fall meet standings at Laurel.
Weston Hamilton rallied I Just Wanna Win from seventh to take race 5 by a neck for trainer Patrick Magill. I just Wanna Win paid $8.60.
“That was the best feeling ever,” Hamilton said.
Angel At War turned in another brave performance at Laurel Park on Monday to remain perfect in six career starts. She has developed into a very nice claim for trainer Michael Gorham, who took her for $40,000 at Delaware Park in August.
Abel Castellano trained Angel At War for her first two races. She won a $20,000 maiden-claiming race in her debut by 11 lengths, then came back to win a $40,000 non-winners-of-two by five lengths.
