El Areeb and the older stakes mare Winter concluded an extended gallop with a half-mile breeze Wednesday at Laurel Park as trainer Cal Lynch continues to point him to the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 8.
El Areeb won the Grade 3 Jerome and Grade 3 Withers over the inner track at Aqueduct this winter. He had his four-race win streak broken in his last start, when he finished third in the Grade 3 Gotham after getting caught in a pace duel.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita intends to use its turf course throughout April rather than resting it April 14-16 – the first weekend of the spring-summer meeting – as planned earlier this year.
“As we get closer, we don’t need to come off of it,” said track senior vice president Joe Morris.
“You don’t want to go without turf racing if you don’t have to.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – With Unique Bella forced to miss the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks because of a minor injury, trainer Bob Baffert plans to start Grade 1 winner Abel Tasman in the $400,000 race.
Unique Bella, the leading 3-year-old filly in the nation, was recently taken out of training because of sore shins, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Tuesday. The setback will prevent her from making scheduled starts in the Santa Anita Oaks on April 8 and the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The late addition of three decided outsiders to the field suddenly made Wednesday’s post-position draw for Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby very relevant. And sure enough, the draw proved significant, with Fountain of Youth winner and 9-5 morning-line favorite Gunnevera assigned the far-outside post 11, a disadvantage with such a short run to the first turn in 1 1/8-mile races at Gulfstream Park.
Charles Town will offer a $100,000-guaranteed all-stakes pick four on its April 22 card that will have the $1.25 million Charles Town Classic as its third leg.
The first two races of the wager are tentatively scheduled to be the $85,000 Robert Hilton Memorial and the $100,000 Sugar Maple. A yet-to-be-determined stakes – one of eight on the card – will follow the Classic as the anchor leg.
The Charles Town Classic will again be run on a daytime card that is set to begin at 12:45 Eastern.
American horses fared well at Meydan Racecourse last Saturday, and their connections were generously rewarded. But not every horseman left with a big payday. As a matter of fact, one trainer hasn’t been able to leave at all.
Luis Carvajal Jr. trains a small stable at Parx Racing. He developed the small-in-stature-but-big-at-heart Imperial Hint into one of the top sprinters in the Mid-Atlantic region this winter and scored his first graded stakes win as a trainer in the $250,000 General George at Laurel Park in February.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockeys Robby Albarado and Corey Lanerie, who have combined for more than 9,000 wins, both have split with their longtime agents and will have new representation when Keeneland starts its 15-day spring meet April 7.
Albarado has hired Ronnie Ebanks to replace Lenny Pike Jr., who in turn now will work for Lanerie. Pike replaces Terry Miller, who has had Lanerie’s book in recent years, most recently at Gulfstream Park.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Business was down marginally last Saturday on the 12-race Spiral Stakes card at Turfway in northern Kentucky. All-sources handle was $5,694,796, down 3 percent from the corresponding 2016 date, according to figures released by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Ontrack handle of $657,841 was down 8.4 percent.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Although Purely a Dream earned enough qualifying points in winning the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks last Saturday at Turfway Park to become a starter in the Kentucky Oaks, that’s highly unlikely to happen, trainer Ken McPeek said this week from his winter base at Oaklawn Park.
“We didn’t even bother to nominate her,” said McPeek, who watched the Bourbonette from his hotel room in Dubai on the Horse Races Now app he founded.
