Mrs. Astor, the winner of consecutive Grade 3 stakes at Del Mar and Santa Anita in the final months of 2024, will have her 2025 debut in another Grade 3, the $100,000 Santa Ana Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on March 15.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas said on Thursday that the Santa Ana will be a prep race for a start at the Keeneland April meeting for the 4-year-old Mrs. Astor, who is owned by George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stable.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled racing on Thursday and moved the program as drawn to Monday due to a forecast for severe weather, according to a text notice from the track. The area was under a flood watch Wednesday afternoon, with rains in the forecast through the night and into Thursday.
Oaklawn also canceled training on Thursday.
The card Thursday was a makeup card because a snowstorm cost Oaklawn a weekend of racing in early January.
Racing is scheduled to resume Friday.
Jaxon Traveler, who has won his last four starts in a streak that includes a pair of stakes in New Mexico, is set to return to the Land of Enchantment for his next race, according to Midwest-based trainer Steve Asmussen.
Asmussen said Jaxon Traveler is being pointed for the $100,000 Bill Thomas Memorial on Feb. 16. Jaxon Traveler won the race last year. It is on the undercard of the Sunland Derby.
The Wine Steward and Sugoi gave trainer Mike Maker a memorable afternoon in the Southwest region last Saturday, with the horses accounting for stakes on marquee cards at Oaklawn Park and Sam Houston Race Park.
The Wine Steward captured the $150,000 Fifth Season at Oaklawn, on the undercard of the Southwest Stakes. He was making his first start since last year’s Belmont Stakes and raced with the pace throughout in a powerful effort off the bench. The Wine Steward won by a neck and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96.
For the third time in less than two months, apprentice jockey Manny Americano will have a new base of operation.
Americano rode the autumn meeting at Pleasanton in Northern California, which ended on Dec. 18. When a winter-spring meeting was canceled at Pleasanton because of poor business, Americano moved permanently to Turf Paradise in Phoenix.
This weekend, Americano is relocating to Santa Anita in Southern California, and is booked on three mounts on Sunday. He will be represented by Brian Beach.
Bullard, a graded stakes winner at Del Mar in November who finished a well-beaten third in his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs on Jan. 4, is likely bound for the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 22 for his first start around two turns.
The $1.25 million Rebel Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles. Bullard was galloped at Santa Anita on Wednesday, trainer Michael McCarthy said.
The Rebel “is a possibility,” McCarthy said.
Despite missing a workout last weekend because of inclement weather, Straight No Chaser, the champion sprinter of 2024, is on schedule for a start in the Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 22.
Straight No Chaser was galloped at Santa Anita on Wednesday, according to trainer Dan Blacker, who said the 6-year-old will have two additional workouts at Santa Anita on upcoming weekend before being flown to Saudi Arabia on Feb. 11.
The Delaware Handicap will be shortened to 1 1/8 miles this year and run in September instead of July, Delaware Park announced on Tuesday.
The $400,000 race, which is open to fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, was recently downgraded from a Grade 2 race to a Grade 3. Traditionally, the race has served as a mid-summer testing ground for high-class fillies and mares bound for Grade 1 races in the fall, but its new date of Sept. 28 will now place it as a potential prep for the Breeders’ Cup.
Hypnus, whose debut maiden route victory Jan. 18 produced a meaningfully higher Beyer Speed Figure (85) than the Lecomte Stakes the same day, will likely start Feb. 15 in the Risen Star, according to trainer Kenny McPeek. He said Hypnus exited his maiden win in good order and would probably work this weekend.
After Her Laugh turned in an especially encouraging workout on Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds, the filly’s trainer, Whit Beckman, leaned toward shipping the 3-year-old to Oaklawn Park, where she was entered in the Martha Washington Stakes. Instead, Her Laugh stayed home this past weekend, breezing five furlongs in 1:02 on Sunday.
