CYPRESS, Calif. – The first time Bob Baffert won the Kentucky Derby in 1997 with Silver Charm, two of the people closest to him – lifelong friend Brad McKinzie and longtime client Mike Pegram – were outside the winner’s circle, beaming with joy. Pegram remembers the moment well.
“We’d been there with Bobby and knew what he’d been through,” Pegram recalled last weekend. “We were just standing on the turf course. We were laughing with tears coming out of our eyes.”
Santa Anita will offer a rolling $1 super high five wager during the upcoming winter-spring meeting on fields of eight or more runners, the track announced last week.
Currently, the bet is offered on only the final race of the day at California tracks. Under the new plan, which will be enacted opening day, Dec. 26, the super high five will be offered on all races with at least eight runners.
If there is not a winning ticket, there will be a carryover into the next race with eight or more runners.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Runaway Ghost financed his $10,000 supplemental fee for the Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity on Saturday with a win in the $55,675 Golden Nugget Stakes on Nov. 11 at Golden Gate Fields.
The eye-catching win, by 7 1/4 lengths, was worth $30,350 for owner and breeder Joe Peacock. A start in the $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity will provide Peacock and trainer Mike Machowsky with a better indication of where Runaway Ghost fits with several of the best juveniles in Southern California.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Majestic Heat’s two-race winning streak could be tested in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes at a mile at Santa Anita in January.
For the first time in her 16-race career, Majestic Heat won consecutive stakes in the Betty Grable Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares at seven furlongs on dirt Nov. 2 at Del Mar and Sunday’s Grade 2 Bayakoa Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Los Alamitos.
Those are Majestic Heat’s only races on dirt, a surface that will be the focus of her 2018 campaign, trainer Richard Mandella said Monday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2017 meeting is only two days old and already trainer Todd Pletcher has unveiled a potential prospect, Noble Indy, for the important 3-year-old stakes to be run here during the winter, including the $1 million Florida Derby.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jorge Navarro had a huge day Saturday, not only winning the Grade 1 Cigar Mile with potential Pegasus starter Sharp Azteca at Aqueduct, but also the main event on Gulfstream’s opening day, the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel, with Flowers for Lisa.
Trainer Larry Jones will be sending in some pedigree power for the $400,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
Jones said Believe in Royalty, a son of Tapit and Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can, is scheduled to make his stakes debut in the Dec. 17 race. It will be the first time the Springboard Mile offers eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby.
Remington Park leading rider Ramon Vazquez is arguably having his best year in the saddle. The native of Puerto Rico ranks sixth in wins in North America with 245 through Monday, and he already has surpassed his personal-best numbers for wins and earnings in a year in the United States.
Vazquez won his first race in the United States in 2009. In 2015, he won 232 races and his mounts earned $5.5 million. But those numbers have already been topped with three weeks left in 2017. Through Monday, Vazquez had won 245 races for mount earnings of $6.2 million.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Stellar Wind’s racing career might not be over just yet.
Stellar Wind, a multiple Grade 1 winner of more than $2.2 million, was purchased by Coolmore for $6 million out of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale just four days after the former Eclipse Award winner finished a disappointing eighth and last as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
She joined trainer Chad Brown’s stable at Palm Meadows shortly after, and on Sunday breezed for the first time in her new surroundings, an easy half-mile in 50 seconds.
Wicked Lick returns to the site of her career peak when she starts in the featured seventh race Thursday at Fair Grounds.
The 3-year-old filly capped a good run through the 2016 -17 Fair Grounds season with a second-place finish to Farrell in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks. It was a fine performance, but Wicked Lick has yet to run back to it, and she comes into Thursday’s feature still eligible to this first-level allowance race.
