LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Runhappy will get a feel for the Churchill Downs surface this week as the 2015 sprint champion draws closer to his first start as a 4-year-old.
Regular rider Edgar Prado will be flown in to get reacquainted with the star colt for a serious breeze, most likely Thursday, according to Laura Wohlers, who trains Runhappy for her brother-in-law, Jim McIngvale.
“That’s the plan,” Wohlers said Friday. “I’ve been watching the weather, and now it looks like it will be good all week.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Rated R Superstar, the winner of the Grade 3 Carry Back at Gulfstream Park two starts back, will make his turf debut in Sunday’s $100,000 Allied Forces Stakes at Belmont Park. The six-furlong race drew a field of six and will be run as the fifth race.
Rated R Superstar is by Kodiak Kowboy and out of the dam Wicked Wish, who has thrown one turf winner, Share the Sugar, by Heatseaker. Ken McPeek trains Rated R Superstar and also trained Share the Sugar.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After being shut down for 52 days, the Belmont Park training track reopened Thursday to positive reviews.
The track was closed for the summer so it could be widened to accommodate more horses. The stretches were widened by about 17 feet. The far turn was widened by 18 feet, and the first turn was widened by about 13 feet. The project was overseen by Glen Kozak, the New York Racing Association’s vice president of facilities and racing surfaces.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Jorge Abreu, who has worked for Chad Brown for nine years, is going out on his own.
Abreu was working for Brown this summer, but he also had his own horse, Woodville, who went 2 for 2 at the Spa. Abreu 42, said he is anticipating getting two 2-year-olds next week and is hoping to claim a horse or two.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Exaggerator, the three-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old who finished 11th as the favorite in the Travers, was set to leave Saratoga on Friday morning and van to Churchill Downs, where he will continue preparations for the Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 24.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Free Rose, the winner of two graded stakes for 3-year-olds on turf at Del Mar, including the $253,105 Del Mar Derby last Sunday, will remain with his own age group this fall, trainer Richard Baltas said.
Baltas said Free Rose is likely to start in the $200,000 Twilight Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita on Nov. 4. Races such as the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 are not in the plans.
“I would like to keep him against 3-year-olds since he’s a gelding,” Baltas said. “Maybe next year we can have him against older horses.
Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., will open for a 53-date meet Saturday with a new twist to its racing schedule, a new voice calling the races, and a new surface over which the horses will be running. The season continues through Dec. 13.
Zia plans to run straight Thoroughbred cards on Mondays and Tuesdays, while Quarter Horses will be featured on Saturdays and Sundays. Fred Hutton, director of racing operations for Zia, said the change is designed to cater to both ontrack and offtrack patrons.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Twelve 2-year-olds, topped by Wellabled and Star Empire, were entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Arlington-Washington Futurity, the final stakes race of the 2016 Arlington meet.
The Futurity is carded as the last eight races Saturday and is immediately preceded by the $75,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie, which also lured 12 entrants and looks wildly competitive.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Mister Marti Gras, a 9-year-old millionaire, has been retired from racing by owner-breeder Bob Lothenbach and trainer Chris Block.
“I’m proud to say he retires extremely sound and happy,” Block said. “He deserves a chance at a second career.”
Trainer Tom Amoss is synonymous with Fair Grounds as a 10-time title winner at the New Orleans track, but it was at Louisiana Downs that he got his first big break.
“It was the Shreveport meet in 1987,” Amoss recalled. “I only had a few horses, and it was that meet where I attracted the attention of John Franks. He gave me some horses.”
