NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Buff Bradley’s first meet-long foray since the early 1990s into Fair Grounds racing has not gotten off to a roaring start, but Bradley has horses of note to run on Saturday’s Road to the Derby Kickoff card.
Chief among them is The Player, the talented 5-year-old who could well be favored in the $75,000 Louisiana, the last of six stakes on a card headlined by the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte for 3-year-olds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – My Boy Tate, winner of three consecutive races, will make his stakes debut in Saturday’s inaugural $100,000 Say Florida Sandy Stakes for New York-bred male sprinters at seven furlongs.
A gelding by Boys At Tosconova, My Boy Tate has won his last three starts by a combined 20 3/4 lengths, topped by a 9 1/4-length second-level allowance score Dec. 9 going seven furlongs. Following an Aug. 13 maiden win at Saratoga, My Boy Tate kicked a stall wall and bruised a foot. In his last two races, he’s earned Beyer Speed Figures of 93 and 95.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Alex the Terror, a hard-hitting 6-year-old son of Mineshaft, sustained a fractured sesamoid in his left foreleg during a routine gallop Tuesday morning at Belmont Park and had to be euthanized, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Wednesday.
Pletcher had claimed Alex the Terror for $62,500 for owner Mike Repole on Sept. 30. In two subsequent starts, Alex the Terror won a second-level allowance by four lengths and finished second, beaten a neck, in the $125,000 Queens County Stakes.
“That was a tough blow,” Pletcher said of the fatal injury.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Audible, who likely would have been favored for Monday’s $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes, has left town, is now in south Florida, and will likely be pointed to an open-company race early in February, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Mourinho was among a planeload of 17 horses that arrived Wednesday in Arkansas from California, according to Oaklawn spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyt. He is expected for the $150,000 Smarty Jones for 3-year-olds on Monday.
Hoyt said the flight also included Sonneteer, entered in the Fifth Season on Friday, as well as eight horses for trainer Peter Miller, five for trainer Tom Van Berg, and two for trainer Doug O’Neill.
Oaklawn racing secretary Pat Pope said the Smarty Jones also could draw Arched Feather, Bode’s Maker, Cat Daddy, and Combatant.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Gary Stevens is riding the Oaklawn meet on a daily basis for the first time after long being based in Southern California, and the move could lead to a change in circuits for the Hall of Famer. He said Tuesday he will make decisions on his future plans based on how things go in Arkansas.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has a “sporting chance” to make a significant impact during the 3-year-old series at the Oaklawn Park meet, which opens Friday. The 82-year-old’s barn houses the most accomplished young runner on the grounds in Sporting Chance, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful in September at Saratoga.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A year after being claimed for the price of a used car, Mended is unbeaten in 10 starts and set for her graded stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita.
Mended won the Claiming Crown Glass Slipper Stakes on Dec. 2 at Gulfstream Park in her stakes debut to end a season in which she earned $185,900 for owners Troy and Maritza Onorato of Daly City, Calif.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bolt d’Oro, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding 2-year-old male of 2017, has resumed training after recovering from a pulled muscle and is likely to have his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 10 at Santa Anita.
Owner and trainer Mick Ruis said Wednesday that Bolt d’Oro will have a two-race campaign in preparation for the Kentucky Derby, with the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 7 another targeted race.
The Grade 1 Man o’ War and the Grade 3 Peter Pan both received significant purse increases and are part of a five-stakes card May 12 at Belmont Park as the New York Racing Association seeks to add another big day to the Belmont spring-summer meet.
