ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s 3-year-old filly division is becoming stronger by the week.
Unique Bella won her stakes debut in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Jan. 8. On Friday, Tapped won her first start against winners in an optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The California Chrome show came to Gulfstream Park for the first time on Saturday morning, when the favorite to be crowned the 2016 Horse of the Year breezed an easy, maintenance-like five furlongs in 1:00.74 before a large crowd of onlookers that included both fans and local horsemen.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Whitmore was a powerful comeback winner in December at Aqueduct, taking an optional $62,500 claiming race in his first out since the Kentucky Derby. The race was a sprint, and he will remain at one turn Sunday when he travels six furlongs at Oaklawn Park.
Whitmore will break from post 3 under Jose Ortiz, who is riding the first four dates of the meet at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Arkansas resident Harry Rosenblum has had success in the 3-year-old stakes series at Oaklawn Park the last two seasons with Far Right and Whitmore. He hopes to see the trend continue Monday, when he is represented by Uncontested in the $150,000 Smarty Jones.
“To me, I think he’s the best young horse I’ve had,” Rosenblum said.
The Smarty Jones is the first race in Oaklawn’s route program for 3-year-olds; it also includes the Southwest, Rebel, and Arkansas Derby. It carries a total of 17 eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Joking, the Grade 1 Vosburgh winner who was scratched from last November’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint due to illness, was expected to leave a Southern California clinic this weekend and get turned out on a California farm.
Joking suffered from two bouts of pneumonia that have forced him to remain at the Chino Valley Equine Hospital in Chino Hills for two months.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – El Areeb, the dominant winner of the Grade 3 Jerome Stakes here on Jan. 2, was credited with a half-mile move in 50 seconds Friday at Laurel as he continues training toward the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 4.
According to trainer Cal Lynch, El Areeb’s work came at the end of a 1 1/8-mile gallop that was done at a two-minute clip – each eighth of a mile in 15 seconds – before he picked it up at the end.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On paper, Monday’s Grade 3, $125,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct looks very similar to last month’s Gravesend Stakes. Trainer David Jacobson hopes the race looks similar on the track as well when he sends out Gravesend winner Stallwalkin’ Dude as the favorite in the six-furlong Toboggan.
Stallwalkin’ Dude was one of seven horses entered Friday for the Toboggan, which will go as race five on a nine-race Martin Luther King Jr. Day program at the Big A. Stallwalkin’ Dude is coming off a two-length victory in the Gravesend, his 17th victory in 48 starts.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The stakes winners Do the Dance and Prize Exhibit are among the probable starters in Monday’s $100,000 Megahertz Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf.
Do the Dance won the restricted Kathryn Crosby Stakes at Del Mar in November. Prize Exhibit won the Grade 2 Monrovia Stakes last January here but is winless in 10 starts since then, all stakes. Prize Exhibit was eighth in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar on Dec. 4.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kobe’s Back, the millionaire multiple stakes winner, will miss the $200,000 Palos Verdes Stakes on Feb. 4 because his preparation has been disrupted by the persistent wet weather in the last two weeks, trainer Peter Eurton said on Friday.
“I’m not going to rush him,” Eurton said. “He’s an older dude now, and I’ll let things come to me. He’ll work Monday.”
