ARCADIA, Calif. – For the 50th year, the Santa Anita jockeys and a team of seventh and eighth graders from nearby Holy Angels School will meet in a charity basketball game at LaSalle High School in Pasadena, Calif., on Feb. 23.
The event benefits the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, the Holy Angels athletic program, and the Eye on Jacob Foundation.
ARCADIA, Calif. – There will be no cause for panic if Mokat is toward the back of the field in the first half-mile of Saturday’s Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita.
“She doesn’t like to be too close,” trainer Richard Baltas said. “I know she wants to be more out of it.”
Mokat finished last of 12 in the Grade 1 American Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf against 3-year-old fillies here on Dec. 31. She surprised Baltas by being as close as third with a quarter-mile remaining and faded from contention in the final furlong.
“She had a wide trip that day,” he said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Royal Albert Hall, who was third in the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland last April, will start in the $1 million Emir’s Trophy in Qatar on Feb. 25, trainer Doug O’Neill said on Sunday.
The Emir’s Trophy is run at 1 1/2 miles on turf and is worth $570,000 to the winner. The race is part of a weekend of rich stakes for Thoroughbreds and Arabians in Doha, Qatar. The Qatar season runs from late November to early April.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There were two racing-related fatalities Sunday at Aqueduct.
Frat Star, a 4-year-old colt, and Regulus, an 8-year-old gelding, had to be euthanized on the track after incidents in back-to-back races over a sealed, sloppy inner track.
In race 4, Frat Star finished last and fell after the wire, unseating jockey Jackie Davis. Frat Star suffered a lateral condylar fracture and a sesamoid fracture to his right foreleg. Davis was uninjured despite the horse rolling over on her at one point.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It’s been a relatively quiet winter in New York for trainer Chad Brown, with his stable having made just 15 starts and winning five races since Dec. 7. Last Saturday, however, Brown’s barn made some noise by sending out Cloud Computing to a good-looking maiden victory in a six-furlong race at Aqueduct.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – David Jacobson’s three-win afternoon Sunday at Aqueduct was reminiscent of a time not too long ago when that was not an uncommon occurrence.
Jacobson was the leading trainer on the New York Racing Association circuit from 2012-14 in large part due to his association with Drawing Away Stable, a partnership that dealt with a large volume of horses with a high turnover of stock. The Jacobson-Drawing Away business relationship ended in the spring of 2015.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Rainbow 6 jackpot went down Sunday to the tune of a $210,518 payout. The winning ticket was one of 64 20-cent tickets purchased by an unidentified bettor in Maryland.
Conquest Hardcandy, the only horse alive for the entire jackpot, won the finale and paid $71.80.
While the Rainbow 6 was solved Sunday, there will be a carryover of $112,178 in the Super Hi-5 pool in the first race when racing resumes here Wednesday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher unleashed another top 3-year-old prospect here Sunday, Malagacy, who followed his 15-length maiden win with an equally eye-catching seven-length optional-claiming victory. He won the 6 1/2-furlong race as a 1-5 favorite under Javier Castellano, earning a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I thought it was a very professional effort,” said Pletcher. “He rated kindly, finished up well with his ears pricked at the wire like he had something left at the end.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jorge Navarro’s first trip to Dubai last spring ended in disappointment when X Y Jet ran his heart out only to suffer a heartbreaking neck defeat in the Golden Shaheen. X Y Jet also incurred an injury during the race that forced him to the sidelines for the next six months.
Undeterred, Navarro is preparing to return to Dubai next month with perhaps an even more potent weapon, Sharp Azteca, who earned a trip to the March 25 Godolphin Mile with his 4 1/2-length triumph in Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.
Trainer Tony Dutrow on Monday said that Mo Town, the winner of the Remsen Stakes in his final start at age 2, will make his first start at age 3 in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds on Feb. 25.
Mo Town also had been under consideration for the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 4. But Dutrow said the long-range weather forecast for New Orleans on Feb. 25, combined with the way Mo Town has progressed this winter at the Payson Park training facility in Florida, has made him eager to get going sooner rather than later.
