Former Canadian champion jockey Luis Contreras is spending the winter in Southern California and will have his first mount at Los Alamitos on Friday.
Contreras rode in Southern California as recently as 2008 and had a mount at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita last month, finishing fourth on Calgary Cat in the Turf Sprint. Contreras has won 1,638 races, including 24 victories in Southern California. He won the Sovereign Award as Canada’s outstanding rider in 2011 and 2012.
After spending the last two winters riding in Saudi Arabia, jockey Alan Garcia is back in New York, hoping to rekindle some success of winters past.
Garcia, 31, last wintered in New York five years ago, when he won 46 races over the inner track, finishing sixth in the rider standings. In 2007-08, Garcia won 80 races, second only to Ramon Dominguez. Later that year, Garcia won the Belmont Stakes aboard Da’ Tara, the day Big Brown was trying to complete the Triple Crown.
Paulassilverlining, a three-time graded stakes winner in 2016, figures to be an odds-on choice in Saturday’s $125,000 Garland of Roses, the first stakes race of the inner-track season at Aqueduct.
Two starts back, Paulassilverlining won the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont and then finished third, beaten just two lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita.
The $300,000 Springboard Mile on Sunday at Remington Park is a chance for trainer Danny Pish to learn more about the distance preferences of the promising 2-year-old U S Officer. The horse already is a winner at the race’s one-mile distance but last month notched his most significant victory in a sprint stakes, the $100,000 Clever Trevor. That race served as the local prep for the Springboard.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer David Cannizzo on Wednesday morning was talking about the potential he felt his barn had for a strong winter meet. Two races into Wednesday’s card, Cannizzo got his first victory when Battle Midway rallied down the center of Aqueduct’s inner track to spring an 11-1 upset.
This after winning eight races from 33 starters over Aqueduct’s main track during the fall.
However, Cannizzo believes the number of trips he makes to the winner’s circle will depend on how well his young horses perform over the inner track.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The old adage about getting better with age surely applies to the turf specialist Whisper Onthe Wind, who will be among the favorites in Friday’s co-featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park, a first-level optional $16,000 claimer for Florida-breds going a mile on turf.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The $300,000 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Saturday had a field of nine probable starters as of Wednesday morning, an indication of the open nature of the Southern California 2-year-old filly division.
Five projected runners were supplemented to the race for $10,000 – Abel Tasman, Berned, Mopotism, Tapped, and Union Strike. Of those, Union Strike, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 3, is the most prominent. She was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
The legendary horse is gone, and with him the crowds that frequently visited the barn with no notice, searching for a glimpse at greatness. More than a year has gone by since American Pharoah left trainer Bob Baffert’s stable for a stud career after a historic 2015 season of winning the Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
In the first nine years after she took out her trainer’s license, Lacey Gaudet’s horses won a grand total of 34 races. The lean years included back-to-back four-win seasons in 2014 and 2015. Then she made a smart move. She joined forces with her mom, longtime trainer Linda Gaudet, to train for Team Gaudet in 2016.
“It was a great idea. It’s been beneficial for both of us,” Lacey Gaudet told the publicity staff at Gulfstream Park, where she traveled from Maryland for last Saturday’s Claiming Crown. “It’s added a lot to the barn – clients, horses, wins. It was a good idea.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Finest City returned to serious training over the weekend, a month after her win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
Finest City worked a half-mile Saturday in 49.80 seconds at Santa Anita. Trainer Ian Kruljac said Finest City is scheduled to have her 2017 debut in the $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs. The BC Filly and Mare Sprint was run at seven furlongs.
“She worked a nice half-mile,” Kruljac said.
Kruljac said Finest City recovered quickly from her Breeders’ Cup win.
