OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Spartiatis, a 7-year-old gelding, captured his first stakes victory in last Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct. Jockey Rajiv Maragh does not think it will be his last stakes win.
Spartiatis will point to the Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 8, and Maragh thinks Spartiatis will have a good chance in that seven-furlong race, where he most likely will take on Unified, the winner of the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Owner Dennis Drazin and trainer Jason Servis will be sorry to see Aqueduct’s inner track close for the season after their Sunny Ridge collected his third stakes victory over that surface in Sunday’s $125,000 Stymie Stakes.
Sunny Ridge rallied five wide in the stretch under Manny Franco and outfinished 35-1 shot Doyouknowsomething to win the Stymie by three-quarters of a length. He earned a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure. The win, Sunny Ridge’s first at 1 1/8 miles, improved his career record to 5 for 13 and pushed his earnings to $833,002.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two years after Salutos Amigos finished eighth in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan, trainer and co-owner David Jacobson is game for another try in that race with Stallwalkin’ Dude.
On Monday, Stallwalkin’ Dude completed his local preparation for the March 25 race with a three-furlong move in 39.45 seconds over Belmont Park’s training track. It was just another in a series of three-furlong moves that Jacobson gives Stallwalkin’ Dude every four days.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tapwrit emerged from his popular, 4 1/2-length win in the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby in good order and was “bright and alert, happy and sound” in his stall at Palm Beach Downs on Sunday, according to trainer Todd Pletcher, who won the biggest race of the Tampa Bay Downs meet for a record fifth time Saturday and the fourth time in the past five years.
Trainer Richard Mandella called the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile victory by Bal a Bali on Saturday “one of the most pleasurable ones I’ve had.” Bal a Bali was making his first start since June, and very nearly went to stud this year before owner Calumet Farm decided to leave him in training for another year.
Before Bal a Bali could return to racing, though, he needed to get over the rigors of an aggressive campaign the first half of 2016. “He was burned out, stiff and sore,” Mandella said Sunday morning at his Santa Anita barn.
The absence of Arrogate and Hoppertunity from the Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday made it an appealing spot for Shaman Ghost, who shipped West and won the race, one of two Grade 1 wins on the card for jockey Javier Castellano.
Shaman Ghost had finished second to Arrogate in the Pegasus World Cup in his prior start. He was not committed to the Big ’Cap until it was certain Arrogate was passing to go to Dubai.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Arrogate completed his serious training for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 25 with a strong seven-furlong workout Sunday morning at Santa Anita in 1:25, an outstanding time considering the track was slower than usual.
Arrogate came on the track just after the mid-morning renovation break with stablemate Cat Burglar, and, after they jogged and galloped through the homestretch they immediately broke off at the 6 1/2-furlong pole, with Arrogate initially about two lengths back.
Oaklawn on Sunday announced an overnight purse increase for the final month of the meet that will push the value of maiden special weights to $80,000 from the current $72,000, while allowances will be worth as much as $84,000 from the previous level of $76,000.
The increases will begin with the Rebel Day program on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Mastery, injured when winning the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, was scheduled for surgery Monday morning at Santa Anita, a gut-wrenching turn of events for his connections who thought they had the favorite for the Kentucky Derby when he crossed the wire, then immediately had to turn their focus to getting him through the surgery.
His trainer, Bob Baffert, said Mastery was “stabilized” in his stall Sunday. “Now we have to take good care of him, get him right,” Baffert said. “I’ll feel a lot better after they do the surgery.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The typical apprentice jockey is barely old enough to shave or vote and most certainly is not of legal drinking age. At age 27, Hector Diaz Jr. is not your typical apprentice jockey.
Sure, he went to the same jockey school in Puerto Rico as Irad Ortiz Jr. and Jose Ortiz – Diaz’s cousins – and Manny Franco, but he did not ride races there. In fact, the first time Diaz rode a horse in a sanctioned race, he finished second aboard Shoppingforsilver in a $16,000 claiming race at Aqueduct last Nov. 11.
