True Timber set the pace after stumbling badly at the break in the Grade 3 Withers, a race in which he ultimately finished second to El Areeb.
Judging by the way he breezed Friday at Belmont Park, True Timber will not be part of the pace when he meets El Areeb again in next Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The only thing hotter than the weather this winter in New York is trainer Joe Parker.
Parker, a career 6 percent-winning trainer, is winning at a 38 percent clip in 2017 after Kate is a Ten won Friday’s fourth race at Aqueduct. Parker, who has now won with six of his last seven starters, has 10 wins from 26 starters in 2017. His previous single-year high was seven wins in 2009. He is 11 for 34 at Aqueduct’s inner-track meet that began Dec. 7, tying for fifth in the trainer standings.
NEW ORLEANS – Plans for the three horses who as of Friday afternoon were going to scratch from Saturday’s Risen Star Stakes are in various states of certainty.
So Conflated, who didn’t ship to Fair Grounds from Santa Anita for trainer Doug O’Neill, is being rerouted to next Saturday’s Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, O’Neill confirmed via text message.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Imahit, a past Oklahoma-bred of the year and an earner of more than $500,000, has been retired, his breeder, owner and trainer, C.R. Trout, said Thursday.
The horse last raced at Oaklawn on Feb. 17, finishing off the board in an optional-claiming sprint won by Yockey’s Warrior. Imahit, an 8-year-old gelding, will head to Trout’s farm in Edmond, Okla.
“He’s part of the family,” Trout said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Shotgun Kowboy was a powerful allowance winner between the running of the Razorback Handicap and Southwest Stakes last Monday at Oaklawn, and he could return to stakes company for his next start, trainer C.R. Trout said Thursday.
Trout said the horse, who has won both of his starts at this meet, is possible for the $250,000 Essex on March 18.
Shotgun Kowboy earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 95 for his 3 3/4-length win Monday.
“I thought it was the best race he ever ran,” Trout said. “I was very proud of him.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Underpressure is quietly building a nice 3-year-old résumé. The horse based at Oaklawn has gone 3 for 4 in his career and became a stakes winner this month in the $100,000 Louisiana Premier Night Prince at Delta Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Conquest Farenheit is staying on turf after winning the first stakes of his career in the $81,890 Baffle Stakes for 3-year-olds on the hillside course at Santa Anita last Monday.
Trainer Peter Miller said he plans to start Conquest Farenheit in the $75,000 Pasadena Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf March 19. There are no plans to try Conquest Farenheit in a Triple Crown prep.
“He came out of the race great,” Miller said. “It looks like we’ll go to the Pasadena and stretch him out for the mile.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 at Santa Anita on Friday, moving closer to a scheduled return to racing this spring.
As of Friday, trainer John Sadler had not finalized a race for Stellar Wind’s first start since a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff here last November. Sadler described the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita on March 18 as “doubtful” for Stellar Wind. He said recent wet weather in Southern California has caused some disruption in Stellar Wind’s preparation.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Rafael Bejarano is targeting a return to riding at Santa Anita on Thursday after sustaining a minor knee injury in a spill Feb. 11.
Bejarano bruised a bone in a one-horse spill on the turf course, according to his agent, Tora Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi said Bejarano will resume riding on Thursday to coincide with the start of a new condition book, which details races to be run at Santa Anita from Thursday through March 19.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jose Pinchin called an audible Friday, moving Three Rules’s final Fountain of Youth work up a day. The runner-up in the Grade 2 Swale responded by going five furlongs in 59.06 seconds and galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.13 over a track that has been on the deep and tiring side of late.
Luis Saez was aboard for the work and will have the mount for the first time in the March 4 Fountain of Youth, replacing Cornelio Velasquez, who has ridden Three Rules in all seven of his starts.
