Del Mar has increased its incentive program to lure horses from out-of-state or international circuits to the track’s summer meeting from July 19 to Sept. 4.
This summer, the track will pay owners a $1,500 bonus to start horses from outside of California who have not raced in the state in the last 12 months. The bonus has been increased from $1,000 in past years.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The $1,199,286 payoff to a single ticket holder in Thursday’s pick six was the fifth-largest in Santa Anita history.
Thursday’s big prize included a scoop of the single-ticket jackpot portion of the pool, a format the track launched at the start of the winter-spring meeting Dec. 26.
According to Santa Anita publicity, the ticket was purchased for $14,400 at Sammy’s satellite wagering location in Lake Forest, Calif., about 60 miles south of Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Three major stakes-winning mares – Finest City, Stellar Wind, and Vale Dori – worked at Santa Anita on Friday and could all meet in the $400,000 Beholder Mile on June 3.
Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 for the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 14. Stellar Wind was second to the champion Beholder in the 2016 Vanity Mile, a race that has since been renamed the Beholder Mile. Stellar Wind has not raced since finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff here last November.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Aside from death and taxes, there aren’t many certainties in life – unless you count Wesley Ward winning with 2-year-olds every spring at Keeneland.
Ward began the 15-day meet by sending out Fairyland to win the meet opener Friday, a 4 1/2-furlong baby race.
“We’re really excited about this filly,” said Ward, who trains Fairyland, a daughter of Scat Daddy, for the Coolmore partnership. “She’s going to be a tiger at Royal Ascot” in June.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lady Eli is among several fillies and mares scheduled to breeze Sunday over the Keeneland turf in preparation for perhaps the deepest race of the entire 15-day spring meet, the Grade 1, $350,000 Jenny Wiley.
Time and Motion, the winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup here last fall, and Catch a Glimpse, the winner of the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland, also will breeze toward the Jenny Wiley, one of four stakes set for next Saturday, April 15.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Tyler Gaffalione had one tough decision to make after the championship meet ended: whether to keep riding locally or move his tack to New York for the spring.
Now, the Eclipse Award-winning rider may find himself facing another difficult decision in the weeks ahead: which of two potential mounts to ride in the Kentucky Derby.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Send It In, third as the favorite in the Stymie Stakes last month, will try again for his first open-company stakes victory on Saturday, when he faces eight rivals in the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior at 1 1/4 miles.
Prior to the Stymie, Send It In had won seven of his previous nine starts, including a pair of stakes restricted to New York-breds.
Hereditary, third to Stanford in the Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs last out, makes his graded-stakes debut in the Excelsior for trainer Shug McGaughey.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer John Terranova had a smile on his face after watching Aqueduct’s third race on Wednesday, when the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained Always a Suspect ran away from the field to win an allowance race by about seven lengths.
The Terranova-trained Caledonian had tussled twice with Always a Suspect, losing to him by a neck last November and beating him by a neck in the Lost in the Fog Stakes. Caledonian will be stepping up in class Saturday when takes on five rivals in the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes for 3-year-olds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Miss Sky Warrior, a two-time graded stakes winner over Aqueduct’s main track last fall, returns to New York and tops a field of nine 3-year-old fillies entered for Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle Stakes.
Last fall, Miss Sky Warrior won the Grade 3 Tempted and Grade 2 Demoiselle to complete a juvenile campaign in which she went 3 for 4.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Unified and King Kranz ran one-two in the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes on the undercard of the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct last April. On Saturday, Unified and King Kranz will meet again when the two head a nine-horse field entered in the Grade 1, $400,000 Carter, which will immediately precede the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
Unified drew post 8, while King Kranz will break from post 5 in the seven-furlong Carter, which is the first Grade 1 to be run in New York this year.
