ARCADIA, Calif. – It seems like all 3-year-old fillies not named Unique Bella have been forgotten in recent months in Southern California.
Abel Tasman fits that profile. She has not raced since winning the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos in December and will be overlooked to some extent in Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita. Unique Bella will be a heavy favorite in the $100,000 race at 1 1/16 miles.
Untrapped, the Risen Star runner-up, is headed to Oaklawn Park for the Rebel Stakes on March 18, but the third- and fourth-place Risen Star finishers, Local Hero and Guest Suite, are likely runners in the Louisiana Derby, trainers Steve Asmussen and Neil Howard said Sunday.
Mo Town, who was fifth as the favorite in the Risen Star, flies back to trainer Tony Dutrow's base at Payson Park on Tuesday.
NEW ORLEANS -- Girvin came out of the Risen Star Stakes as well as he went into it, according to trainer Joe Sharp. Making just his third start and racing around two turns on dirt for the first time, Girvin won the Risen Star on Saturday at Fair Grounds by two lengths over Untrapped. If all goes well with the colt, Girvin will make his next start April 1 in the $1 million Louisiana Derby,
ARCADIA, Calif.- Ambitious Brew won his first start of 2017 in Saturday’s $92,000 Sensational Star Stakes for California-breds on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita, his first start since a 13th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint here last November.
The same race is unlikely to figure in 2017 plans for Ambitious Brew, trainer Marty Jones said in the winner’s circle.
The BC Turf Sprint will be run at five furlongs on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 4, a distance Jones thinks may be too short for the 7-year-old Ambitious Brew.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Bettys Bambino, the multiple stakes winner who finished last of three in Saturday’s $92,000 Sensational Star Stakes, has likely run his last race.
Trainer Peter Eurton said on Sunday that Bettys Bambino emerged from the race with a “strained suspensory,” and will need at least eight months off. He said the partners that own Bettys Bambino will most likely retire the 7-year-old.
“He could come back,” he said. “It will be a long time. I think we’ll get on the same page.”
ARCADIA, Calif.- American Anthem, one of trainer Bob Baffert’s top contenders for the Triple Crown, worked five furlongs in 58.98 seconds at Santa Anita on Sunday prior to the first race.
There was no early morning training on the main track at Santa Anita on Sunday because of pre-dawn rain. American Anthem was one of four horses to have workouts at 11:45 a.m.
American Anthem is a candidate for the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 18.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind is one of three top Santa Anita-based runners trained by John Sadler and owned by Hronis Racing being considered for graded stakes in April at Oaklawn Park.
Stellar Wind will target the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 15, Accelerate could run in the Santa Anita Handicap March 11 but more likely will wait for the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 16; Moe Candy is aiming to the Grade 3 Count Fleet for sprinters on April 10.
“I don’t want it to sound like I’m taking everything to Oaklawn, but I am,” Sadler said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The jockey colony at Santa Anita will get a lot deeper this week. Rafael Bejarano is expected to return Friday; Hall of Fame rider Gary Stevens is tentatively scheduled to return next Sunday.
Bejarano, who has won the last four riding titles at the Santa Anita winter-spring meet, has not ridden since he bruised a bone in a Feb. 11 spill on the turf course.
Stevens has not ridden since Dec. 10; he underwent hip-replacement surgery in late December and recently began working horses regularly at Santa Anita.
Made You Look, a multiple graded stakes winner on turf, will make his dirt debut in this Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday.
“The horse has trained really well on dirt, he’s got a dirt pedigree, at some point we wanted to test it,” said Pletcher, who trains Made You Look for Let’s Go Stable and Three Chimneys Farm. “He’s doing real well at the moment. Now’s the time. There are no real easy spots. We figured since he’s here, we’ll stay home and give it a try.”
