ARCADIA, Calif. - A last-place finish by Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan in Thursday’s Grade 1 Malibu Stakes has left trainer Kenny McPeek perplexed.
McPeek said on Friday morning that Mystik Dan emerged from the Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds without incident.
“It’s a real head-scratcher,” McPeek said. “He ate up after the race and he’s sound. He came out great.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The 2-year-olds Cyclone State and Georgia Magic have had their success racing on the front end.
With an eye toward the $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 4 and potentially beyond, the connections of both horses tried teaching their charges something different Friday morning in preparation for the future.
ARCADIA, Calif. – All-sources handle exceeded $21.49 million on Thursday at Santa Anita, part of a bumper set of statistics on opening day of the winter-spring meeting.
The all-sources handle was the highest on opening day since 2022 when handle reached $26.3 million and the third-highest handle ever on opening day. The 2020 opening day had a handle of slightly more than $23 million.
The handle jumped 17.4 percent over the 2023 figure of $18.3 million. Ontrack handle on Thursday was $2,657,871, a gain of 3 percent over 2023.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 3-year-olds She Feels Pretty and King of Gosford will have wintertime vacations after winning graded stakes on turf at Santa Anita on Thursday.
She Feels Pretty won her second consecutive Grade 1 race in the $303,000 American Oaks at 1 1/4 miles for 3-year-old fillies, taking a commanding lead in early stretch. She Feels Pretty won by 2 1/2 lengths as the favorite.
For 2025, She Feels Pretty will have a season geared toward the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
“That’s our goal,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – With one predictable result, and one far from expected, trainer Doug O’Neill won two of the six stakes on Santa Anita’s opening-day program on Thursday with an established sprinter and an older horse meeting expectations.
Raging Torrent was the 5-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs and ran to expectations, winning by 1 1/4 lengths for his fourth win in his last five starts.
Earlier on the program, J B Strikes Back, an 18-1 outsider, led throughout the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.
The National Thoroughbred League has not come close yet to meeting the grand ambitions the company announced when it was launched early in 2023, but to co-founder Randall Lane, the concept has been successful at its main goal.
“We want everyone to love racing as much as we do, and we think [the National Thoroughbred League] gives people a very easy entry point to that world,” Lane said. “When we’re creating fans, we’re creating fans for all of Thoroughbred racing. That’s ultimately the goal, where everyone succeeds.”
The interstates from New Orleans to Louisville hardly offer a driver a pleasing, scenic experience, yet Whit Beckman, making that journey Sunday, sounded ebullient. And why not? The day before, Beckman sent out first-time starting 2-year-old filly Simply Joking to win the $100,000 Letellier Stakes and 2-year-old filly Her Laugh to win the $100,000 Untapable.
Simply Joking got a 78 Beyer Speed Figure for her six-furlong win, Her Laugh a 74 after leading on a slow pace going a mile and 70 yards.
Wayne Catalano, 68, has trained a Kentucky Derby winner – just not when the horse won the Kentucky Derby.
Animal Kingdom as a 2-year-old came from the Florida farm where he was broken into Catalano’s stable at Arlington Park. The colt ran twice during 2010, winning a Keeneland maiden race, before his owner, Team Valor International, consolidated their stock with trainer Graham Motion. The following spring, Motion saddled Animal Kingdom to a Derby upset.
White Abarrio’s presence in Saturday’s Grade 3, $165,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes didn’t seem to scare anybody away from the entry box as he will have 11 opponents in the seven-furlong race.
Among the more intriguing challengers is Mufasa, winner of the Grade 2 Vosburgh at Aqueduct in September who finished 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 2 at Del Mar.
Trainer Bill Mott’s primary concern about Rocket Can, as it relates to a potential start in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, is the colt’s ability to succeed at 1 1/8 miles. It is the primary reason Mott was noncommittal to the Pegasus following Rocket Can’s 1 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
