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.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita officials hope to add a day of racing in the coming months as a makeup for canceling Thursday’s program because of wet conditions.
Track senior vice president Joe Morris said on Friday that the track is more likely to add a full day rather than add races to existing programs to compensate for the eight lost races.
“I want to make that day up,” Morris said. “We’ll look at both options, but I’d like the day back. We’ve got until July 4 to find an opportunity.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – All Included, who finished third in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap last February, returns from a 9 1/2-month layoff and will be eligible to be claimed for $62,500 when going postward as the likely favorite in Sunday’s $49,000 main event, carded at 7 1/2 furlongs on the grass under allowance and optional-claiming conditions.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – At 95, trainer Jerry Bozzo no longer visits the barn every morning. But he was on hand Friday morning, attending to business and eager to answer all questions pertaining to the queen of his stable, the multiple stakes-winning speedster Flutterby, who will launch her 6-year-old campaign next Saturday in the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Distaff.
“I only have five horses now, so I don’t feel the need to be here every day,” said Bozzo, a World War II veteran. “But I still make it out here periodically, and I still have my finger on the pulse here at the barn.”
With a short field likely for the Silverbulletday and the quarantine situation compromising the chances of filling a first-level allowance race, there was speculation that Valadorna, most recently second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, also may be entered in the Silverbulletday. But trainer Mark Casse said Thursday that Valadorna, as he had planned, would pass on the Jan. 21 race.
“She’s just not quite ready,” Casse said. “We’re going to wait.”
Valadorna, whose lone win came in a Keeneland maiden race, has worked twice since arriving at Fair Grounds.
Entries for the six stakes races Jan. 21 at Fair Grounds were to be taken Friday, and track officials remained confident that despite the equine herpesvirus outbreak at the track that began late last month, there would be sufficient horses to fill them.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While trainer Kelly Breen prepares Tempted and Demoiselle stakes winner Miss Sky Warrior for her 3-year-old debut, he will seek another New York stakes victory with a young filly when he runs Frank’s Folly in Sunday’s $100,000 Busanda Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
Frank’s Folly, a daughter of Mineshaft, ships up from Gulfstream following an off-the-turf maiden win going 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 11.
“It was a matter of getting her out of Florida and making sure she goes two turns,” Breen said, adding that the distance “was the key to her success.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It would not have surprised anybody if the connections of Diversify had opted to run him in Saturday’s $125,000 Jazil Stakes. After three dominant wins to begin his career, the 4-year-old New York-bred gelding certainly looks stakes-caliber.
But they opted to take incremental steps with Diversify, who is running Saturday at Aqueduct but in a first-level, open-company allowance race at a mile and 70 yards in the race immediately following the Jazil.
