OZONE PARK, N.Y. – High Ridge Road, the winner of the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park on Feb. 18, returned to the work tab Wednesday, breezing five furlongs in 1:02.02 over the Belmont Park training track.
Trainer Linda Rice said she moved the work up a few days to take advantage of a training track that she felt was in good shape.
Trainer Bret Calhoun has the probable favorites in a pair of Friday night stakes races at Sam Houston in More Than Most and Kat’s Infatuation. More Than Most will be looking for her fifth career stakes victory in the $50,000 San Jacinto, while Kat’s Infatuation brings a strong last-race Beyer Speed Figure into the $50,000 Bara Lass.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Cautious Giant, who was claimed for $62,500 on March 2, was withdrawn from consideration for Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on Wednesday after he failed to train well that morning, owner Ron Paolucci and trainer Bob Hess Jr. said.
Cautious Giant was supplemented to the Big Cap for $15,000 last Saturday.
“He was a little sluggish when he went to the track,” Paolucci said. “If he wasn’t perfect, I won’t run him. I thought he had a shot.”
In a text message, Hess described Cautious Giant as “flat” in a morning gallop.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Zapperkat missed the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita last November after undergoing surgery to have a bone chip removed from a knee. Her connections hope Zapperkat can start in another leading race for the division – the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5 – if she runs well in an optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Friday and then in an April prep for the Oaks.
ARCADIA, Calif. – In his 14-race career, Masochistic has won eight races, three graded stakes, and been disqualified from purse money twice for medication violations.
In November, Masochistic was second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita, but he was later disqualified because of a steroid positive. In January, the Breeders’ Cup announced that Masochistic is banned from any Breeders’ Cup race at Del Mar in November, as are all runners from trainer Ron Ellis’s stable.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said Wednesday that Malagacy, untested in a pair of sprints at this meet to begin his career, will make his next start at Oaklawn Park in the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel Stakes on March 18.
Malagacy, by Shackleford, won a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race by 15 lengths and a 6 1/2-furlong optional-claiming race by seven lengths.
Carlos Carrasco, the 18-year-old younger brother of top Maryland rider Victor Carrasco, won with the first two mounts of his career at Laurel Park last Saturday.
Carrasco scored a 15-1 front-running upset aboard the Jose Corrales-trained Wilko’s Last Dance in race 3 and came right back to win the fourth on 3-5 favorite Speightshill for trainer Jonathan Maldonado.
There will be an early sign of spring this week when the Sagamore Farm of Under Armour founder Kevin Plank ships six horses from Florida to their home base in Maryland. Over the next month, other snowbirds will be heading back to the Mid-Atlantic, which could use an infusion of new blood.
Trainer Arnaud Delacour said A. P. Indian is scheduled to breeze again here at Tampa Bay Downs this weekend as the 7-year-old gelding gears up for his seasonal debut next month in the Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland. A. P. Indian was a 2016 Eclipse Award finalist in the sprint division.
Delacour said another of his stable stars, Divining Rod, is back under tack at WinStar Farm in Kentucky after a minor setback interrupted his training at Tampa. The 5-year-old Divining Rod is expected to return to action within a few months.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – This year marks not only the 25th anniversary of trainer Rusty Arnold having his second and most recent starter in the Kentucky Derby but also the 35th anniversary of his first.
There would be no better way to celebrate than having another Derby starter.
“It’s the plan we’ve had since last fall,” said Arnold, who on Saturday will be looking to take a big step in that direction when Wild Shot runs in the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs.
