OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Kendrick Carmouche, the leading jockey through the first two weeks of Aqueduct’s winter meet, will serve a three-day suspension for his ride aboard Frizzante in Saturday’s sixth race at Aqueduct.
Carmouche waived his right of appeal and will serve the days on Jan. 19, 23, and 24.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sand Devil, the impressive 3-year-old New York-bred who has won both of his starts, could stay with statebreds for his next start in the $125,000 Damon Runyon Stakes on Feb. 8, trainer Linda Rice said. Rice had previously mentioned the $250,000 Withers Stakes going 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 1 as potential next target for the colt.
“I’m leaning Damon Runyon-Gotham,” Rice said, referring to the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham run at one mile on March 1.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Last Saturday, trainer Dominick Schettino sent out the New York-bred Bernietakescharge and pulled off a 16-1 upset Saturday in an open-company allowance race at Aqueduct.
This Saturday, Schettino will send out Bernieandtherose, the younger half-sister to Bernietakescharge, in hopes of pulling off an upset in the $100,000 Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct.
The Busanda, at 1 1/8 miles, drew a field of nine, though two horses are cross-entered in other spots. The top five finishers in the Busanda earn qualifying points (20-10-6-4-2) toward the Kentucky Oaks.
Turfway Park has canceled its Saturday and Sunday cards, with this entire week of racing now lost after a major winter storm featuring ice and snow early in the week in Kentucky was followed by days of below-freezing temperatures that did not allow for much recovery, plus more snow overnight on Friday.
“While the track crew worked tirelessly to accommodate this weekend’s schedule, conditions were not ideal for racing to proceed,” a release from track officials stated Saturday morning.
Santa Anita has canceled racing for Saturday and Sunday on Saturday morning, citing the expansion of a devastating wildfire on the westside of Los Angeles.
The announcement was made after 7 a.m. Pacific to horsemen via a text message.
Santa Anita will conduct racing on Saturday and Sunday after canceling Friday’s program because of air-quality concerns caused by the massive wildfires that struck Los Angeles County this week.
Track officials monitored air-quality data through Friday before deciding to proceed with racing this weekend.
The track has an 11-race program scheduled for Saturday beginning at 11:30 a.m. Pacific that includes five stakes that comprise the California Cup program for statebreds. A 10-race program will begin at noon Pacific on Sunday.
A celebration of life for the late trainer Mel Stute and his wife Annabelle, who died in December, is scheduled for Sunday at 9 a.m. at Clocker’s Corner at Santa Anita. A memorial service for the couple is scheduled for Saturday at Hope Lutheran Church in Glendora, Calif., at 2 p.m.
Mel Stute, who trained the legendary California-bred Snow Chief in the 1980s, died in 2020 at the age of 93. Annabelle Stute died in December at 92.
The Stutes’s survivors include their son, Gary, who has a stable at Santa Anita. Gary Stute saddled a winner at Santa Anita earlier this month.
Endlessly, a four-time stakes winner who was ninth in the Kentucky Derby last May, recently returned to trainer Michael McCarthy’s stable at Santa Anita for an expected return to racing in the spring.
McCarthy said earlier this month that Endlessly has been jogging in recent weeks.
“We’ve got a long way to go there” to be ready to run, McCarthy said.
Owned by John and Jerry Amerman, Endlessly was fifth in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby on turf at Aqueduct in July in his last start. Last March, Endlessly won the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park.
J B Strikes Back, the former maiden claimer who scored an upset win in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, will miss the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25 in favor of a California-based campaign, trainer Doug O’Neill said.
“It was coming back too quick,” O’Neill said of the decision to skip the $3 million Pegasus World Cup. He also cited cross-country travel for a reason to keep J B Strikes Back in California.
O’Neill said the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on March 1 is a possibility.
The rematch isn’t on. Miles Ahead and Montalcino, separated by a head in a fast renewal of the Thanksgiving Classic, are headed in separate directions.
Both horses are stabled at Fair Grounds, which has a large hole in its stakes program, as the Thanksgiving Classic at the opening of the meet is the only open dirt sprint stakes race for older horses during a season that spans more than four months.
