Remember Favorite Trick? He was the prototype for the advanced 2-year-old and was Horse of the Year as a juvenile in 1997, but he was unable to carry his early success into later seasons.
Newfound Gold is the anti-Favorite Trick. As a 2-year-old of 2009, Newfound Gold began his career by losing three $12,500 maiden-claiming races at Emerald Downs. Last Monday at Fair Grounds, he won his first allowance race. Newfound Gold is 10 now and was making his 57th start.
ARCADIA, Calif. – First, it was a new knee, then last fall, a new hip. A whole new Gary Stevens, the ageless, bionic man, got his first win since returning from the hip surgery aboard Shehastheritestuff last Saturday.
“It always feels good,” he said. “There’s pressure because you’ve got to prove to people that you’ve still got some shelf life, and I do.”
Stevens said returning from the hip surgery was “way easier” than the full knee replacement from nearly two years ago.
“It’s a lot less invasive,” he said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup Sprint this November at Del Mar will be the long-range goal for Denman’s Call, who scored an upset victory in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Stakes last Saturday, according to trainer Doug O’Neill.
Denman’s Call was making his third start following a nine-month layoff in the Triple Bend. The win was his first since a debut victory against maidens in January 2016. He had lost six straight since.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Midnight Storm, who couldn’t quite hold off Shaman Ghost going 1 1/4 miles when finishing second last Saturday in the Santa Anita Handicap, will look toward the Met Mile on Belmont Stakes Day at Belmont Park as the next opportunity to get a Grade 1 victory on dirt, trainer Phil D’Amato said Thursday.
Midnight Storm already has won a Grade 1 stakes on grass, and his connections have focused his 2017 campaign on trying to get a Grade 1 win on dirt.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Enola Gray and Smoove It, one-two last month in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint on the hillside turf course, renew their rivalry Saturday at Santa Anita in the $100,000 Irish O’Brien Stakes, a race Smoove It won last year.
Enola Gray will be strongly favored. She scored by 3 1/4 lengths last time at 3-5 odds and is unbeaten at these exact conditions – sprinting on the hillside course against California-bred females, both times under jockey Tyler Baze, who is back aboard Saturday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin was initially planning to run Indulgent in Saturday’s $125,000 Correction Stakes at Aqueduct but called an audible and entered defending Correction winner Clothes Fall Off in the six-furlong stakes race instead.
Indulgent, a winner of three straight races, will be pointed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap on April 9 over Aqueduct’s main track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The emergence of Arrogate as a top-tier dirt horse has prompted his owners, the Juddmonte Farms of Prince Khalid Abdullah, to seek suitable mares for future breeding purposes.
Paulassilverlining apparently fits that bill.
This week, Juddmonte finalized a deal to purchase the graded-stakes-winning mare Paulassilverlining from Vincent Scuderi. The 5-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper will race this year and be bred to Arrogate in 2018, according to Garrett O’Rourke, the U.S. racing and farm manager for Juddmonte.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mohaymen, a four-time Grade 2 stakes winner who has not raced since last summer, was expected to breeze Friday at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida, his first timed workout since returning to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin last week.
McLaughlin said Mohaymen breezed three times on the farm at Camden, S.C., before shipping to him.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s a 90-minute drive – on a good day – from Payson Park to Gulfstream Park. That’s a long road to travel for less than 74 seconds of work, but well worth the trip for trainer Tony Dutrow and his Kentucky Derby prospect Mo Town, who came down the turnpike to breeze here Thursday in preparation for a possible start here April 1 in the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Preakness-winning trainer Keith Desormeaux has taken down a few stakes with maidens, among them the Summer Juvenile Championship at Los Alamitos with Swipe and the Landaluce at Santa Anita with Right There. He would love to pull off the feat again Saturday with Sonneteer in the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel at Oaklawn.
Sonneteer will enter off a runner-up finish in a Santa Anita maiden special weight race won by Kimbear, who could be headed to the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby.
