The legendary horse is gone, and with him the crowds that frequently visited the barn with no notice, searching for a glimpse at greatness. More than a year has gone by since American Pharoah left trainer Bob Baffert’s stable for a stud career after a historic 2015 season of winning the Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
In the first nine years after she took out her trainer’s license, Lacey Gaudet’s horses won a grand total of 34 races. The lean years included back-to-back four-win seasons in 2014 and 2015. Then she made a smart move. She joined forces with her mom, longtime trainer Linda Gaudet, to train for Team Gaudet in 2016.
“It was a great idea. It’s been beneficial for both of us,” Lacey Gaudet told the publicity staff at Gulfstream Park, where she traveled from Maryland for last Saturday’s Claiming Crown. “It’s added a lot to the barn – clients, horses, wins. It was a good idea.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Finest City returned to serious training over the weekend, a month after her win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
Finest City worked a half-mile Saturday in 49.80 seconds at Santa Anita. Trainer Ian Kruljac said Finest City is scheduled to have her 2017 debut in the $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs. The BC Filly and Mare Sprint was run at seven furlongs.
“She worked a nice half-mile,” Kruljac said.
Kruljac said Finest City recovered quickly from her Breeders’ Cup win.
A 1-2 finish by Annals of Time and Beach Patrol gave New York-based trainer Chad Brown an exacta sweep in Saturday’s $302,415 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar. The result helped Brown clarify his 2017 goals for his 4-year-old turf runners.
Annals of Time made his fourth start, and first in a Grade 1, in the Hollywood Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf. Ridden by Javier Castellano, Annals of Time closed from fifth between horses in the final furlong to pass Beach Patrol and win by 1 1/2 lengths as a 5-1 shot.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The schedule that worked so well for Miss Temple City in 2016 is the template for her 2017 campaign.
After her season-ending victory Sunday in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes for older females at Del Mar, trainer Graham Motion said Miss Temple City would return to his barn at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland for a vacation, then get started in the spring at Keeneland, the site of two of her three Grade 1 victories this year.
After that, “we want to go to Royal Ascot and then hopefully here next year at this time,” Motion said.
Entries for Saturday’s Louisiana Champions Day card were taken last Friday, and Sunbean, one of the leading lights of Louisiana-bred racing, was cross-entered in the $100,000 Turf and the $150,000 Classic. But trainer Ron Faucheux said Saturday that Sunbean “more than likely” would wind up in the Classic, and that the Turf would be considered as an option only if the race were moved to the main track because of wet conditions.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Laoban went into the Saratoga summer meeting a maiden and left several months later as the winner of the Grade 2 Jim Dandy. But he was put on the track vet’s list after being eased across the finish line nearly an eighth of a mile behind Arrogate in the Grade 1 Travers.
As a result, trainer Eric Guillot had to load Laoban into a van early Sunday morning at the Palm Meadows training center to make the 40-mile trip to Gulfstream Park, where he worked an impressive five furlongs in 1:00.43 under jockey Paco Lopez shortly after 9 a.m.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The 2-year-old fillies Go On Mary, Mopotism, and Sandy’s Surprise have run only in maiden races, but trainer Doug O’Neill has seen enough to point for Saturday’s $300,000 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos.
The Grade 1 Starlet Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles.
“All three fillies act like the distance won’t be a problem,” O’Neill said on Sunday. “It’s how they handle themselves. It’s a Grade 1 in your backyard, and you’ve got to take a chance.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The downgrading of the Wood Memorial concerns New York horsemen and may have some rethinking plans for their soon-to-be 3-year-olds.
Trainer Tony Dutrow had said in the winner’s circle following Mo Town’s victory in the Remsen Stakes on Nov. 26 that he would like to use the March 4 Gotham and the April 8 Wood Memorial as Mo Town’s path to the Kentucky Derby. At the time, he thought the Wood Memorial was a Grade 1.
Laurel Park on Monday released the stakes schedule for its 2017 winter meet with familiar clusters of races comprising big-day events.
The richest day of the 56-day meet at the Laurel, Md., track comes Feb. 18, when the Grade 2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie and Grade 3, $250,000 General George will be among six stakes.
