NEW ORLEANS – Tiger Moth, who won the Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 28 with a career-best performance, will make her next start March 17 in the Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn with an eye toward the Grade 1 Apple Blossom there, trainer Brad Cox said.
Retirement had been considered for the 6-year-old Tiger Moth.
“She’s not been bred, and we’re pointing toward the Azeri,” he said.
Tom’s d’Etat back to work
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Conquest Big E, runner-up to Tommy Macho in the Jan. 27 Fred Hooper at Gulfstream, sharpened for his next start in the Grade 3, $100,000 Hal’s Hope when blowing out a half-mile here Friday in 47.81 seconds for trainer Donna Hurtak.
Leading jockey Luis Saez has picked up the mount on Conquest Big E for the one-mile Hal’s Hope, the richest of three stakes here next Saturday (Feb. 24). A pair of $75,000 turf sprints, the Texas Glitter and Melody of Colors, also will be featured.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Brad Cox’s ever-advancing racing stable has attracted a new client of international renown – Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms.
Cox, who entering Friday’s races was the leading trainer at Fair Grounds with 33 wins and at Oaklawn with 12, has been training a handful of Juddmonte horses since last fall. The first to arrive and the first to race was the 4-year-old Speed Gun, who made an eye-catching debut Tuesday at Fair Grounds, leading all the way in a two-turn turf maiden race that he won by 5 1/4 lengths under Florent Geroux.
NEW ORLEANS – The champion older dirt female of 2017, Forever Unbridled, turned in a major workout Friday at Fair Grounds as she prepares for the Dubai World Cup on March 31.
Working solo through dense fog just after 6 a.m., Forever Unbridled was timed in 1:12.40 for six furlongs by trainer Dallas Stewart. He had the 6-year-old mare going out seven furlongs in 1:25 and a mile in 1:40.20.
“She worked real good,” said Stewart. “Went her last half in 47 and 2.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Dale Romans continues to solidify plans for his Kentucky Derby hopefuls, saying Storm Runner and Free Drop Billy are his candidates for the next prep here, the March 3 Fountain of Youth.
“Storm Runner came out of his last race in great shape,” said Romans, referring to a Feb. 4 allowance win here over the highly regarded Mississippi.
The Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth is expected to mark the seasonal debut of the reigning divisional champion, Good Magic.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Rick Pitino came to Gulfstream on Wednesday to watch Coach Rocks in a maiden race, but he failed to see the filly. Literally.
Pitino, the Hall of Fame college basketball coach currently living in Miami, experienced temporary blindness in his left eye and had to leave the track about an hour before Coach Rocks won the 1 1/16-mile race by eight lengths.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A big effort on turf at Gulfstream Park last month was all it took for trainer Ian Wilkes to get excited about McCormick again.
“I’m very happy with the way he’s come back as a 4-year-old,” said Wilkes. “I’m encouraged.”
Sunday at Gulfstream, McCormick will have Julien Leparoux back aboard when he looks to improve on a narrow Jan. 15 miss at the same condition in the 11th of 12 races, a $52,000 second-level allowance at a mile on turf. First post is noon Eastern, with the feature scheduled for 5:16 and the Rainbow 6 spanning races 7 through 12.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The middle of February last year was a grim period for jockey Drayden Van Dyke. Weeks earlier, he had broken his arm in a gruesome spill at Santa Anita and had a cast that extended above his elbow.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he recalled this month. “I was in a lot of pain and on a lot of medication. There was a lot of stress.”
Van Dyke was sidelined until late June but managed to salvage the 2017 season, winning 61 races, close to the 69 victories he recorded in both 2015 and 2016. The momentum shows no sign of abating.
