OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice had three horses nominated to Saturday’s Toboggan Stakes but didn’t enter any, as her Barn 44 at Belmont remains under quarantine until a horse who tested positive for the equine herpesvirus on Jan. 9 tests negatively for it in a subsequent exam.
While Rice was considering running Gravesend winner Do Share in the Toboggan, she was never really planning on running Seymourdini. Instead, Seymourdini will point to the $150,000 Stymie Stakes on March 10.
Maurer Power, runner-up in the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct in December, had to be euthanized Jan. 13 after a morning training accident at the Palm Meadows training center in Boynton Beach, Fla.
Trainer John Servis said Maurer Power threw her rider shortly after entering the racetrack, then crashed into a support pole on the outer rail, severely injuring a leg. She was owned by the Cash Is King Stable of Afleet Alex fame.
“It was absolutely devastating,” said Servis. “We had big plans for that filly.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The most accomplished horse in the field could very well be the longest shot on the board in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.
Green Gratto, a Grade 1 winner who has earned more than $1.1 million, will make his 62nd start in the Toboggan, run at seven furlongs. Green Gratto, an 8-year-old New Jersey-bred son of Here’s Zealous, was one of six male sprinters entered in the Toboggan, a field that also includes Grade 1 winner Takaful.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of longstanding turf fixtures, the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight and Grade 3 La Prevoyante, are among the seven stakes that will precede the $16 million Pegasus World Cup on a sensational Saturday program at Gulfstream Park.
Fields for the entire 12-race card were drawn Wednesday, with both the McKnight and La Prevoyante drawing competitive fields of older turf horses going 1 1/2 miles. First post is 11:30 a.m. Eastern.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Friday’s second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming feature at Aqueduct lost its favorite when Just Got Out won Sunday’s Ladies Handicap, thus making her ineligible for this race.
What remains is an evenly matched group of five fillies and mares, many seeking to return to a race in their past form that would make them winners in this one-mile heat.
Trainer Bart Hone hit a milestone of 2,000 Thoroughbred wins in North America on Tuesday, when he sent out Snowbound Jones to capture the seventh race at Sunland Park. The horse held on for a head win in the $6,250 claiming sprint and paid $10.80.
Hone won the first race of his career on May 29, 1978, according to Daily Racing Form records. He has had 10,625 starters, and those horses have earned $22.9 million. Hone has won 123 stakes with horses such as Ducky Drake, Black Hills, Wiredfortwotwenty, and My Bikini Fell Off.
Trainer Doug O’Neill, who is 4 for 8 at this Oaklawn Park meet, had a double Sunday, when the 3-year-olds Tyfosha and Shane Zain won maiden special weight races. Both could see stakes action in the near future.
Tyfosha stalked the pace in Sunday’s sprint and scored by 4 1/4 lengths while making her first start since running second to eventual multiple Grade 1 winner Moonshine Memories in a Del Mar maiden race in August. Tyfosha earned an 80 Beyer Speed Figure on Sunday in her fourth career start.
Sandy’s Surprise will be out to rack up a second stakes win in the Southwest when she invades for the Grade 3, $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Sunday at Sam Houston Race Park. The Southern California-based runner shipped to New Mexico last November to win the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks, and following that race, her connections targeted the Houston Ladies Classic, the richest Thoroughbred race in Texas.
“This was the original plan after we were fortunate in her previous out-of-town race,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “We think we’ve got her right on target to run a big race.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Pee Wee Reese, winner of the Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside turf course Jan. 1, will have his next start in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes on Feb. 10 and will not run in Saturday’s $200,000 California Cup Turf Classic at Santa Anita.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said the distance of the $100,000 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf had greater appeal than the Turf Classic, which is run at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
“I’m going to wait,” D’Amato said. “I think the extra eighth of a mile could catch up to him.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Multiple stakes winner Silent Bird was undergoing assessment late Wednesday morning after sustaining a leg injury in a workout earlier in the day at Santa Anita.
“We’re going to try to save him,” trainer Mark Glatt said at his stable. “He suffered a pretty serious injury.”
The winner of the Grade 3 Midnight Lute Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on Dec. 30, Silent Bird was pulled up shortly after finishing a three-furlong workout in 36.20 seconds.
