Lone Star Park near Dallas has moved its two richest races at its Thoroughbred meet to Sundays. Lone Star will race 50 days from April 20 through July 30.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile last year was run on a Friday night card and will now be held on Sunday, May 7. The Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap last year was run on the traditional Memorial Day card and will instead go on Sunday, May 28.
Post time for Sunday cards during the meet will be 2:35 p.m. Central.
I’m a Chatterbox is in the same boat as Gun Runner: a Fair Grounds-based star with an out-of-town target that might be out of range because of the EHV-1 quarantine.
I’m a Chatterbox’s only winter goal has been the $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 28 at Sam Houston, but that track is not presently accepting any horses from Louisiana, and the mare’s participation will hinge on how quickly the Fair Grounds quarantine ends, and how soon thereafter other states lift bans on horses coming from Louisiana.
Gun Runner, third in the Kentucky Derby last year and the winner of the Grade 1 Clark Handicap in his final start of 2016, worked six furlongs in 1:13.20 on Saturday at Fair Grounds. The colt is ready to run in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, but it is looking increasingly like he won’t get the chance.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The cancellation of the weekend cards at Aqueduct due to severe winter weather forced two stakes races to be rescheduled.
The Ladies Handicap, part of last Saturday’s card, was redrawn Sunday and will go as race 3 on Friday’s nine-race card. Last Sunday’s Ruthless Stakes for 3-year-old fillies was to be redrawn Wednesday and will be run Saturday along with the Jazil Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Rudy Rodriguez said that the recent stakes winners Heaven’s Runway and Bonita Bianca are getting a brief freshening before their next starts, which could come in February.
Heaven’s Runway, the winner of the Dave’s Friend at Laurel on Dec. 31 and the Grade 3 Fall Highweight at Aqueduct on Thanksgiving Day, will be in light training for a few weeks. He could point to the Grade 3, $250,000 General George at Laurel on Feb. 18 or wait for the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool at Aqueduct on March 11 or the Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct on April 8.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The holiday season may be over, but owner Roddy Valente hopes his reasons for celebrating are not.
In the last five weeks, Valente has won six races at three different tracks and was a nose away from winning a seventh race last Friday at Aqueduct.
“They let me back in the game,” Valente kidded on Monday. “It feels good to be back.”
Valente hopes the good tidings continue Saturday when he sends out Doyouknowsomething in the $125,000 Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A week ago, trainer Mark Casse said everything would have to go perfectly for Classic Empire to make the Grade 2 Holy Bull here on Feb. 4. Classic Empire moved a lot closer to that goal by working four furlongs in 49.78 seconds and galloping out five-eighths in 1:03.40 at the Palm Meadows training center on Sunday, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Vesce.
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, Classic Empire worked in company with the older graded stakes winner Kaigun.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tether to Reality has the pedigree to be a star, but his connections had to wait a long while before the gelding could strut his stuff. That day finally came last Friday, when the 5-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday made his career debut at Tampa Bay Downs in a $20,000 maiden special weight race, winning the six-furlong sprint by 3 1/2 lengths and stopping the clock in a snappy 1:10.81. He earned a 79 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Only five horses signed up to face Tepin in last year’s Grade 3, $150,000 Endeavour Stakes, and a similarly small group is likely for this year’s edition of the turf route at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 11, when the champion turf mare will seek a repeat win. One possible contender emerged here Sunday, when Light In Paris returned from a long layoff to win a no-conditions, $25,500 allowance.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – So far, so good as far as California Chrome’s connections are concerned in his quest to end his career on a winning note in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28.
California Chrome arrived locally following an uneventful flight from the West Coast on Friday, visited the track for the first time to jog on Sunday, and turned in a routine gallop well before sunrise Monday, going 1 3/4 miles under his regular exercise rider, Dihigi Gladney. Temperatures hovered around 50 degrees the last two mornings, with the wind chill in the high 30s.
