ARCADIA, Calif. - The single-ticket jackpot pool of the $2 pick six begins with a carryover of $64,964 on Thursday at Santa Anita.
The jackpot portion was last hit on May 4.
Thursday’s pick six covers the third through eighth races on a program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific. The sequence includes four races on the main track and two on turf. The final two races are optional claimers – one on the main track at 6 1/2 furlongs and one on the hillside turf course.
Mor Spirit is establishing himself as an older horse of significance. He has earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in his three starts as a 4-year-old, his latest a 107 for his 5 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $200,000 Steve Sexton Mile on Sunday at Lone Star Park.
Mor Spirit came into the race off a clear win in the Essex Handicap in March at Oaklawn. In that race, he covered 1 1/16 miles in a sharp 1:41.60 and earned a 105 Beyer. In his other start this year, Mor Spirit was second to Hoppertunity in the Grade 2 San Antonio at Santa Anita with a 101 Beyer.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion scratched Miss Temple City out of last Saturday’s Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile because of soft turf. He may have another dilemma on his hands because rain is forecast for Saturday in New York, where Motion has Miss Temple City entered in the Grade 3 $150,000 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer John Kimmel certainly wouldn’t mind if Belmont’s main track came up sloppy on Saturday, when he sends out Bar of Gold in the Grade 2, $250,000 Ruffian Stakes at a mile, her 12th attempt at winning her first graded stakes.
Bar of Gold was entered in the Grade 3 Vagrancy last Friday at Belmont, and though she is 5 for 5 over wet tracks and the track came up sloppy, Kimmel opted not to run her at the Vagrancy’s 6 1/2-furlong distance.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Timeline, unbeaten in two starts, steps into stakes company for the first time when he heads a field of six entered for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes, typically a prep for the Belmont Stakes.
Timeline, a son of Hard Spun trained by Chad Brown, won a seven-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream and then captured a first-level allowance by 13 1/2 lengths in the slop going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct. Timeline will break from post 2 under Javier Castellano.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Barclay Tagg will be watching the weather intently over the next few days as he prepares Highland Sky for Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park.
Tagg has Highland Sky ready to run, but he doesn’t want to run the colt over soft ground. Tagg scratched Highland Sky from last Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Fort Marcy because the turf came up soft. Rain is again in the forecast for Saturday after dry conditions prevailed for most of this week.
Shaman Ghost, the Santa Anita Handicap winner, drilled five furlongs in 59.07 over the Belmont Park training track Wednesday morning in preparation for his start in the $300,000 Pimlico Special on May 19.
Shaman Ghost went in company with Flying Bullet, a 4-year-old maiden winner. Shaman Ghost went in splits of 12.37 seconds, 23.82, 35.33 and got his last quarter in 23.74 seconds. He pulled away from Flying Bullet by five lengths at the wire and then galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.29.
El Areeb, the winner of the Jerome and Withers stakes at Aqueduct this season before injuring his right knee in a March 30 workout, has been sent to a farm in Monkton, Md., to continue his rehab, according to trainer Cal Lynch.
Dr. Dean Richardson of the New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania removed a chip and cleaned some debris out of El Areeb’s knee, Lynch said.
“The chip was very mild, and the surgery went well,” Lynch said. “He should come back from this just fine.”
Miss Sky Warrior, who had her five-race win streak snapped when she finished eighth in the Kentucky Oaks, is being given a farm vacation and will rejoin trainer Kelly Breen’s Monmouth Park stable this summer.
Miss Sky Warrior got caught up in a speed duel with 6-5 Oaks favorite Paradise Woods over the sloppy track, going in 22.79 and 46.24 seconds. Miss Sky Warrior put Paradise Woods away entering the stretch but tired from her early efforts and was beaten 11 lengths by Abel Tasman, who rallied from last in the 14-horse field.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kimbear and American Anthem, both well beaten in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 8, are expected for Saturday’s Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs.
Neither Kimbear, who was sixth in the Santa Anita Derby, nor American Anthem, who finished 12th, has won a stakes.
