ARCADIA, Calif. – Cherokee Nation’s 10-length maiden romp Friday at Santa Anita in 1:34.50, the fastest dirt mile at Santa Anita in nearly a decade, produced a 100 Beyer Speed Figure and earned the colt a start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 4.
“That was a ‘Wow,’ the light went on,” trainer Bob Baffert said Saturday morning. “He was a different horse yesterday. He’s just starting to fill out, he’s figuring it out.”
In late November, for his 22nd start, British Isles had a career change. The then-4-year-old gelding started on dirt after 18 consecutive races on turf.
The surface switch has led to the goal of running British Isles in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.
Trained by Richard Baltas, British Isles was a game second in the Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on dirt at Del Mar on Nov. 22, and fifth at 83-1 in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at 1 1/8 miles at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26.
Vicente Del-Cid, the leading rider at three of the last four Thoroughbred meetings at Delta Downs in Louisiana, has moved to Santa Anita.
This weekend, Del-Cid is booked on one mount on Friday, She’s a Joker in the fifth race, and one mount on Saturday, Tiegarten in the fourth race.
At the Delta Downs meeting that began in October and ended last Saturday, Del-Cid won 129 races from 449 mounts, an impressive 28.7 percent winning percentage. Joel Dominguez was a distant second with 53 wins.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Pietro Moran, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey of 2025, will begin riding at Gulfstream Park on Sunday. He will ride here until Woodbine opens in April.
“Get some experience. Great colony here. Get a lot of experience, meet some trainers and owners and see what happens,” Moran said Thursday.
Moran is named on two horses on Sunday’s card, both for trainer Rachel Halden, a Woodbine-based trainer who winters in South Florida.
Dylan Davis, who suffered multiple injuries including multiple broken ribs as well as having a kidney removed as the result of a spill at Aqueduct on Nov. 14, was scheduled to return to race-riding this weekend at Gulfstream Park.
Davis was named on two horses on Saturday’s 14-race card, including Public Defender in the Grade 3 Honey Fox. He will ride four horses on Sunday. On Friday, Davis was at the Palm Meadows training center, where he breezed five horses, including two on the turf.
Barring a late change of heart, Skippylongstocking, winner of the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 24, is likely to make his next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said Friday.
“We’re booked to go to California Sunday. It’s not 100 percent, but that’s where we’re leaning right now. It’s a Grade 1, it makes sense. He’s already won on the track, the timing’s right.”
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – On the day before he was to find out if he has a Kentucky Derby contender in Jackson Hole, trainer Todd Pletcher on Friday at Palm Beach Downs put two of his more accomplished 3-year-olds through workouts as they prepare for stakes engagements later in March.
There will be 73 stakes worth $23.575 million offered at the extended 2026 Saratoga meet, but two prestigious races that had been run at Saratoga the past five summers will be moved back to Belmont Park this fall.
Plutarch, winner of the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 7 at Santa Anita, is off the Kentucky Derby trail, trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday afternoon.
Baffert said Plutarch came out of his win “a little body sore. I just backed off him a little bit. He’s very immature. The timing is bad. I need an extra 30 days.”
Baffert said Plutarch will remain with him at Santa Anita and remain in light training.
“He’s still in light training, but I’m not going to make the Derby with him,” Baffert said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Champion Nitrogen breezed Wednesday at Oaklawn in her first move since winning her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Bayakoa here Feb. 7.
She went a half-mile in 49.60 seconds. The track was fast and the move was what trainer Mark Casse said he was looking for, to “do a little something, but not a lot.”
“She’s doing super,” he said.
Casse said Nitrogen remains on course for the Grade 2, $400,000 Azeri on March 7 at Oaklawn.
