Trainer Larry Jones last weekend confirmed his intention of running I’m a Chatterbox in a turf allowance Saturday at Fair Grounds.
I’m a Chatterbox, a multiple Grade 1 winner on dirt, has won 8 of 18 starts but never has run in a grass race.
“It’s something we’ve been wanting to try for a long time,” Jones said.
I’m a Chatterbox, most recently second in the Houston Ladies Classic last month, is one of seven fillies and mares entered in a one-mile grass race.
It has been a productive first Fair Grounds meet for trainer Brendan Walsh – the last two racing weeks in particular.
Egyptian won a second-level allowance by a nose over the talented Forevamo on Feb. 17. The next day, the second-time-starting 3-year-old Multiplier was beaten a neck in a two-turn dirt maiden race by the very promising colt Souper Tapit. And those two were just a warm-up for the good Walsh did the following week.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The heavy lifting is done for Midnight Storm, who breezed super on Monday morning, came out of the work in top shape, and is expected to start favored March 11 in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.
Majority owner Alex Venneri and trainer Phil D’Amato considered passing the Big Cap in favor of the Dubai World Cup on March 25, but early this week decided to stay home and try to make Grade 1 turf winner Midnight Storm a Grade 1 winner on dirt.
The undefeated Javiera will have a hot trainer in her corner Friday night when she takes on Golden Mischief and Perfect Prediction in the $50,000 Take Charge Brandi at Delta Downs.
Golden Mischief could go favored on the strength of her local win in the $100,000 My Trusty Cat in October. Perfect Prediction invades from Fair Grounds off a runner-up finish in an allowance Jan. 13.
To note that trainer Mike Maker is running stakes horses most everywhere Saturday would not be an overstatement. Besides starting horses at his principal winter base of Gulfstream Park, he has Keystoneforvictory and High Noon Rider racing in Barbados and five horses entered in Saturday evening’s $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Broadway Empire put trainer Robertino Diodoro’s career on the fast track in 2013, when he won the Canadian Derby and Oklahoma Derby. It was a boon for the barn, which has since established itself as a significant outfit in racing.
Diodoro was the fifth-leading trainer in wins last year in North America and through Wednesday was tied for second in that category while simultaneously leading the standings at Oaklawn Park and Turf Paradise.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Dale Romans thought he had his once-in-a-lifetime horse who could win the race every horseman wants to win once in their lifetime.
But Not This Time emerged from his runner-up finish in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with a soft-tissue injury in his right foreleg and was retired to stand at stud. As the sport gears up for the Kentucky Derby, it’s difficult for Romans not to think about what might have been.
“I tried to quit thinking about it,” Romans said Wednesday. “That was a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Highway Star, a well-beaten fourth in the Ladies Handicap on Jan. 13, will look to bounce back in Saturday’s $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational, which drew a field of seven.
Highway Star, a New York-bred daughter of Girolamo, had won three consecutive races, including the Grade 3 Go for Wand at Aqueduct on Dec. 3, before she was beaten 17 lengths by Wonder Gal in the Ladies.
In the Ladies, Highway Star was four wide down the backstretch, made a move at the three-eighths pole, but was done by the quarter pole.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Mistressofthenight has earned a chance to run in Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita following a stylish win in a recent maiden race.
That does not translate into expectations for a win from trainer Richard Baltas. Baltas is fully aware of the competition – the exciting two-time graded stakes winner Unique Bella and the Grade 1 winner Abel Tasman.
“I don’t think I can win the race, but with a good race, I can run second or third,” he said Wednesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The absence of Arrogate from the Grade 1 Santa Handicap on March 11 may lead to participation by runners from other circuits, and perhaps a turf stakes winner, in the track’s richest race for older horses.
Arrogate, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November and the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January in his last two starts, is scheduled to run in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 25.
