Two female champions and another filly who is a Grade 1 winner were among the workers at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Stellar Wind, the dominant older female in California this year and the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, worked a half-mile in 48 seconds. Trained by John Sadler for Hronis Racing, Stellar Wind is a leading candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 3. She won the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar in July in her last start.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Princess Karen, the winner of the $75,000 Beverly Lewis Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs at Los Alamitos on Saturday, has found her niche in one-turn races.
After Saturday’s win, trainer Jeff Bonde said he has no plans to try Princess Karen in longer races. The memory of a seventh-place finish behind Paradise Woods in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles in April is fresh in his mind.
“I think her best distance is between six and seven furlongs,” Bonde said. “I tried her long and was disappointed.”
CYPRESS, Calif. – The longevity of the 9-year-old stakes winner Soi Phet can be partially attributed to annual winter vacations. Another such rest will begin in the not-too-distant future.
After Soi Phet won Saturday’s $75,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes for California-bred milers at Los Alamitos, trainer Leonard Powell said the gelding may have one more start at the Santa Anita autumn meeting before he is given a break in advance of a campaign in 2018 as a 10-year-old.
“I’ll bring him back next year,” Powell said. “You have to give them a break before they need it.”
CYPRESS, Calif. – Sunday’s nine-race program drew 83 runners for nine races, the most of any card in the first week of the Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Los Alamitos. The card averages 9.2 runners per race.
The six maiden races on the card drew 56 runners. A $30,000 claiming race for maidens was divided into two 10-horse divisions, while a $20,000 claiming race for maidens was divided into two nine-horse races. There also are two maiden special weight races, one for 3-year-olds and up (eight entrants) and one for statebred 2-year-old fillies (10 entrants).
CYPRESS, Calif. – Estrechada, the winner of the Grade 3 Waya Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 5, will have her next start at Aqueduct or Del Mar in early November.
Trainer Mike Puype said he is considering the Grade 2 Las Vegas Marathon against males at 1 3/4 miles on dirt at Del Mar on Nov. 3 or the Grade 3 Long Island Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on turf for fillies and mares at Aqueduct on Nov. 4.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Jockey Corey Nakatani has been suspended for next Thursday’s card for repeated incidents of excessive use of the whip, according to a ruling published by Los Alamitos stewards this week.
Nakatani was cited for his winning ride on Bolt d’Oro in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity last Monday. Nakatani was judged to have struck Bold d’Oro more than three times in succession without giving his mount a chance to respond. This was Nakatani’s fifth such offense in the last 60 days, leading to the one-day suspension.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Richard’s Boy and Stormy Liberal, multiple stakes winners this year, will miss the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 29 and will not race again until the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 4, trainer Peter Miller said on Thursday.
They are two of four hopefuls Miller has for Breeders’ Cup sprint races this year. Miller plans to run Roy H and Calculator in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 7, a prep for the BC Sprint.
Stormy Liberal has not been training much because of an infection in a hind leg, Miller said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Exercise rider Darren Fortune died in a freak training accident on Woodbine’s main track Friday.
Shortly after 7 a.m. Eastern, Fortune was on a horse who bolted while galloping out after a work and collided with another horse who was jogging the other way on the first turn. He was subsequently transported by paramedics to the hospital, where he died. No horses were injured.
Fortune, 43, doubled as an outrider for Woodbine during the races and was a valued employee, according to Jamie Martin, Woodbine Entertainment’s executive vice president of racing.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dallas Stewart said Forever Unbridled will train regularly at Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 3 at Del Mar, maintaining a schedule similar to the one she used prior to upsetting Songbird in the Personal Ensign Aug. 26 at Saratoga.
“It’ll be the same time frame, the same approach to what we used into Saratoga,” Stewart said, adding it will be about the same gap between races to the Distaff as it was to the Personal Ensign.
Stewart said the first breeze back could come in a week or so. “We’re going to ease her back into it,” he said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Gun Runner was scheduled to arrive Saturday at Churchill Downs from Saratoga, with no set schedule before he leaves again in a few weeks for Southern California to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup.
Steve Asmussen, who trains Gun Runner for Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, said he will monitor the colt’s progress for a few days before deciding on a first breeze at Churchill. Gun Runner won the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga by 10 1/4 lengths on Sept. 2.
