Trainer Mark Casse has another talented Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old who has come a little late to the party along the Triple Crown trail.
The Casse-trained Curlin’s Honor ran his career record to two wins from two starts, overcoming trouble and a layoff of more than four months to win a first-level allowance race Sunday. He joins the barn’s debut winner Telekinesis as clearly talented young horses under the care of assistant trainer David Carroll this winter in New Orleans.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Justify, who earned a brilliant Beyer Speed Figure of 104 with his runaway debut win Feb. 18, came back to work Monday, two days earlier than originally planned, owing to a forecast for rain in upcoming days. He went an effortless five furlongs in 1:01.40 under jockey Drayden Van Dyke, who rode him to his win.
Many options are open for Justify for his next race, including the Sunland Derby on March 25, trainer Bob Baffert said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bolt d’Oro’s workout Monday morning at Santa Anita, his main piece of work prior to his 3-year-old debut 12 days hence in the San Felipe Stakes, was a microcosm of his preparation this winter. He started off behind and finished well.
Bolt d’Oro missed some training time earlier this meet, which caused him to skip an intended comeback race in the San Vicente. His work Monday was a demanding six-furlong move from the gate, with a gallop-out to a mile. He just needed an extra moment to get started.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With no entries through Friday, and his career victory total standing at 1,999, it’s possible that Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey could be shooting for number 2,000 on Saturday in the Davona Dale.
McGaughey is the trainer of Fly So High, one of the top contenders in the Grade 2, $200,000 Davona Dale, a Kentucky Oaks qualifying race. In her last start, Fly So High was an easy winner of a Jan. 4 allowance at Gulfstream, and McGaughey has been pointing to this one-mile race ever since with the Phipps Stable homebred.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Chad Summers seriously considered running Mind Your Biscuits in the Gulfstream Park Sprint here next Saturday before deciding the 5-year-old horse will go straight to the March 31 Dubai Golden Shaheen without a second prep race. Mind Your Biscuits won the $2 million race last year.
“Originally the plan was to get two preps into him,” said Summers. “But he ran kind of faster and harder than I thought” when second in a Feb. 9 allowance at Gulfstream.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Always Dreaming has made such steady progress in his daily training at Palm Beach Downs that the 2017 Kentucky Derby winner could surface in the Gulfstream Park entries before too long.
“We’re going to sit down and talk probably after his next work and zero in on his next race,” trainer Todd Pletcher said last weekend. “It’s getting to the point now where we really need to do that because he’s training lights out. He’s getting better every day.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Get ready for earlier post times and possibly more races at Santa Anita this spring.
Beginning with the March 11 program, the first after the shift to daylight saving time, first post on Sundays will be 11:30 a.m., an hour earlier than on the original schedule. Post times from Thursdays through Saturdays will change to noon, an hour earlier than on recent weekdays and a half-hour earlier than on most recent Saturdays.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ian Wilkes knows a thing or two about being on the Kentucky Derby trail, having been in the winner’s circle twice, first as the exercise rider for Unbridled in 1990 and again as an assistant to trainer Carl Nafzger 17 years later with Street Sense.
Wilkes had a Derby starter of his own a year ago, the highly regarded McCraken, who was virtually eliminated when knocked around in traffic shortly after the start, finishing eighth as the second choice in the wagering behind race winner Always Dreaming.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Javier Castellano departed here before the end of Sunday’s program to catch a flight to California where he was scheduled to work top Kentucky Derby contender Bolt d’Oro Monday morning at Santa Anita. But before he left, Castellano was more eager to talk about his victory aboard a bottom-level maiden claimer earlier in the day.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Conquest Tsunami, Stormy Liberal, and Calculator gave trainer Peter Miller his first sweep of a trifecta in a stakes in Saturday’s Grade 3 Daytona Stakes at Santa Anita.
Miller, the leading trainer at the winter-spring meeting, achieved this rare milestone despite a tumultuous period in recent months for him.
Miller’s stable lost five horses in the wildfire that struck the San Luis Rey Downs training center in early December. Along with the rest of the San Luis Rey Downs-based stables, Miller relocated his horses to Del Mar for the winter.
