NEW ORLEANS – It’s winter in New Orleans, and the French expatriate Florent Geroux should be right at home in America’s most French city. This is Geroux’s fifth Fair Grounds meet. He was the leading rider here the last two. Yet this is a season of change for Geroux.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite its recent struggles to fill races and the downturn in handle that coincides with short fields, the New York Racing Association is committed to maintaining a winter racing program.
“Our intention is to have winter racing,” Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior director of racing operations, said in a recent interview.
The likely favorites in the 10-horse General George Stakes, carded as race 9 on Saturday at Laurel Park, are Great Stuff and Do Share, both of whom exit Aqueduct stakes victories.
Do Share rallied from off the pace in his last start to win the six-furlong Gravesend on Dec. 23 for trainer Linda Rice. Do Share has since missed two races – the Fire Plug and Toboggan – because of an equine herpesvirus quarantine in his Belmont Park barn.
NEW ORLEANS – Jersey Joe Bravo is having a good go of things in the Big Easy.
Thirteen times the leading rider at Monmouth Park, Bravo is based for the first time at Fair Grounds, and, excepting a New Orleans winter’s damp chill that caught him off guard, Bravo has been thriving. After the Feb. 13 card, Bravo stood sixth in the jockey standings with 32 wins, a total he’s amassed from just 111 mounts. Bravo’s 29 percent strike rate tops the meet among jockeys with more than one mount.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – My Boy Jack has talent, as evidenced by his maiden win in the Zuma Beach Stakes on turf last October at Santa Anita. But whether his niche will prove to be turf or dirt remains to be seen, and trainer Keith Desormeaux hopes to walk away with some insight following the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes on Monday.
He has two entered in the Risen Star Stakes this Saturday at Fair Grounds and likely will have three in the Southwest Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park. And there are several more who could make late impacts on the Kentucky Derby trail. These are heady days for Steve Asmussen, who has as much depth as any trainer with this year’s crop of 3-year-olds as he tries to tick off the one box still left open on his résumé.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unique Bella, the leading older female in California, will not face males in the near future.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Wednesday that he plans to point Unique Bella to the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on March 17 and is not considering running her in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap against males at 1 1/4 miles on March 10.
“The Big Cap does not fit in our plans,” he said. “I think everyone is on the same page on staying with fillies and mares.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Purses have been boosted for two turf stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.
The Singletary Stakes at a mile on May 5 and the Rainbow Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on June 16 will be run for $100,000, an increase of $25,000 from the original schedule, according to Rick Hammerle, the track’s vice president of racing.
Earlier, the purse for the Pasadena Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf March 17 was increased $75,000 to $200,000.
