HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said All Included, who won the Grade 3 Appleton after finishing second in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap, will make his next start in the Grade 3 Miami Mile here April 29.
“He seems to like Gulfstream, so that seems like the most logical spot,” Pletcher said.
Pletcher breezed several notable horses Friday at Palm Beach Downs, including Destin and Syndergaard.
Lone Star Park near Dallas has renamed one of its premier races, the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile, for the late racing executive Steve Sexton.
Sexton, who was part of the track’s original management team, died in December after battling brain cancer. He was 57.
The Steve Sexton Mile for 3-year-olds and up will be run May 7. It will serve as a platform to raise awareness for a cause important to Sexton, putting underprivileged youth through college. Toward that end, the family is creating the Steven P. Sexton Foundation.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sean Perl will be leaving his position as assistant racing secretary at the New York Racing Association at the end of next week. Perl held the position for 2 1/2 years.
Perl, 30, will be launching his own bloodstock business starting with the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. auction of 2-year-olds from April 25-28.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Last Saturday, Michelle Nevin watched with pride as her former charge Paulassilverlining won the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland. A few hours earlier, Nevin’s Grade 1-winning mare By the Moon returned to the work tab with a half-mile move in 50.88 seconds.
The work was the first for By the Moon since she was beaten a neck by High Ridge Road in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park on Feb. 18. Nevin said she backed off By the Moon after that race and gave the filly a break.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Yorkiepoo Princess bled while finishing eighth in the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes last Saturday at Aqueduct, a problem trainer Eddie Barker said can be rectified, which is why he still plans on running the filly in the Grade 1, $1 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5.
Barker said that owner Danny Chen paid the $1,500 late-nomination fee to make Yorkiepoo Princess eligible for the Oaks. Yorkiepoo Princess earned 50 qualifying points toward the Oaks for her victory in the listed Busher Stakes on Feb. 25.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s 11-race card at Gulfstream Park features a $43,000 optional-claiming/allowance race at six furlongs that lured a field of seven older horses led by Easy to Say, who is expected to be favored over a well-matched group that includes Mach My Day, The Son Wind, and Call to Honor.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2016-17 Gulfstream Park championship meeting got off to a fast start and never looked back, with the total handle of $867 million for the 87-day session smashing the old mark of $807 million set the previous winter.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Midnight Storm drew post 3 in a field of seven for the Grade 2, $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday. Entries were drawn Wednesday.
The field from the rail is: Texas Chrome, Domain’s Rap, Midnight Storm, Madefromlucky, Inside Straight, Cutacorner, and Goats Town.
Accelerate was intended for the Oaklawn Handicap upon his Tuesday arrival from Southern California, but he spiked a fever Wednesday morning and was withdrawn from the race, according to trainer John Sadler. Sadler said Accelerate will return home to Santa Anita.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Last year’s juvenile male champion, Classic Empire, will break from post 2 in a field of 12 for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday. The race was drawn Wednesday and picked up a few new faces following the Monday defection of One Liner.
Classic Empire was scheduled to arrive on the Oaklawn backstretch later Wednesday following a flight from south Florida.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of Mo Town are searching for answers after the 3-year-old’s seventh-place finish in last Saturday’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial.
Mo Town was sent to Kentucky, where he will be evaluated by veterinarians to see if there’s a physical issue that has yet to be discovered.
