ARCADIA, Calif. - The graded stakes winners Faypien and Unique Bella worked at Santa Anita on Sunday in advance of a first-ever meeting in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs Dec. 26.
The $300,000 La Brea Stakes is part of the opening-day program of Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting.
Unique Bella, a four-time graded stakes winner, worked five furlongs in 58.80 seconds, the fastest of 55 recorded works at the distance.
ARCADIA, Calif. - McKinzie, the maiden-race winner who will be favored to win his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity, worked six furlongs in 1:12.80 at Santa Anita on Sunday.
The workout included a vital lesson for the colt, who has had one start. Another horse worked in front of McKinzie, who took dirt in his face. McKinzie had the fastest six-furlong work Sunday.
“It was one of his best,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He took the dirt well.”
Catholic Boy came out of his 4 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Remsen Stakes in good order and will get a little freshening at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla., as his connections consider what road to take to a potential start in the Kentucky Derby.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas and John Panagot, racing manager for owner Robert LaPenta, said Catholic Boy would likely get three weeks off. They may not run him until the end of February or early March, which would rule out the Grade 3 Withers, at 1 1/8 miles, here Feb. 3.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After dominating Saturday’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, Sharp Azteca will return to south Florida this week and will most likely make his next start in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27, trainer Jorge Navarro said Sunday.
“It’s 95 percent yes, we’re going in the Pegasus,” Navarro said by phone from south Florida. “The horse will tell me where he’s at once he gets here. I’m sure he’s going to be all right. I’m going to have enough time to get him ready.”
Gun Runner began the serious preparation for the last start of his tremendous career when he worked an easy half-mile in 51.40 seconds on Sunday morning at Fair Grounds.
The work was Gun Runner’s first since he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Del Mar, and the first drill in preparation for his career finale Jan. 27 in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park.
“It was traditional Gun Runner,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He was traveling well. He moves easy. All is well with him.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown swept the final two graded stakes run at the Del Mar fall meeting, which concluded on Nov. 26. Now, he is eyeing several graded events at Santa Anita when that Southern California track opens its meeting on Dec. 26.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sunday’s main event at Gulfstream Park will offer a $50,000 purse and be decided at five furlongs on turf under first-level allowance and optional-claiming conditions. A field of 11 plus one entrant for the main track only were entered, led by Dubai Bob, a winner of two of his last three starts for the partnership of Averill Racing and Matties Racing, the same group that owns the world-record-holding turf sprinter Pay the Price.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Cloud Computing, the Preakness winner who was sidelined following the Travers in August with a chip in an ankle, has recently rejoined trainer Chad Brown’s stable at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida.
Brown said that Cloud Computing has started walking under tack and that he has no timetable for when he would like to bring him back in 2018.
“Just happy to have him back,” Brown said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The main track closes for training at 9:45 each morning at Gulfstream Park, but it wasn’t until after 11 a.m. that the final horse left the course Friday, the last of seven late-morning workers for next Saturday’s Clasico Internacional del Caribe program. The Clasico Internacional del Caribe is a series of five stakes races worth $600,000 in total to be hosted for the first time outside of the Caribbean or Latin America.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The 2-year-old Septimius Severus, who won his career debut by a nose at Aqueduct on Nov. 24, has been purchased privately by West Point Thoroughbreds, Dean and Patti Reeves, and Randy Hill. He has been transferred to trainer George Weaver.
