Glee capped a memorable Remington Park season with a 10 3/4-length win in the $75,000 Toby Keith Stakes on closing night Dec. 13 and is now bound for Oaklawn Park, according to trainer Steve Asmussen.
Glee made two starts at the Remington meet, both in stakes. She won the E.L. Gaylord at 6 1/2 furlongs by more than 15 lengths on the Oklahoma Derby undercard Sept. 29.
The highest Beyer Speed Figure earned at the current Oaklawn meet is a 99. Gulfport, one of three runners to have put up the number this season, shares the distinction with Happy Is a Choice and Full Screen.
Happy Is a Choice beat Gulfport by a neck in the Ring the Bell Stakes on Dec. 7 at Oaklawn. One start prior, Gulfport won the Bet On Sunshine at Churchill Downs.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Gulfport emerged from the Ring the Bell in good order and will now target the $150,000 King Cotton on Jan. 25 at Oaklawn.
Sandman will begin preparations for the first graded race in Oaklawn Park’s series for 3-year-olds after closing out his initial season of racing with an impressive allowance win over the local surface on Dec. 13.
Sandman bounded to a 1 3/4-length victory over first-level allowance foes, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 89.
It was a breakout performance, and his target now is the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes on Jan. 25, according to trainer Mark Casse.
Jockey Geovanni Franco is preparing for a return to riding at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 after a five-month absence caused by injury.
Franco has not ridden since he was unseated at Del Mar on July 26, sustaining injuries that included a fractured shoulder. He resumed exercising horses at Santa Anita earlier this month.
“I felt very good on a couple of workers,” Franco said last weekend.
Trainer Larry Rivelli’s second season stabled at Fair Grounds has started better than his first.
Rivelli wound up winning eight races during the 2023-24 Fair Grounds meet after moving most of his horses north well before the end of the racing season. This time, Rivelli already has six winners from just 13 runners during the meet’s first month.
“Last year, we did it on a whim. This year, we’re planting our flag,” Rivelli said.
The 3-year-old colt Mystik Dan, winner of the Kentucky Derby in May, is about to set off on a long journey from New Orleans to Southern California. The 3-year-old filly Two Sharp, winner of the Chilukki Stakes in November, is not.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Skinner, a Grade 3 winner poised to emerge as a major player in the winter handicap division at Santa Anita, has been transferred from California trainer John Shirreffs to Midwest trainer Cherie DeVaux.
Owner Lee Searing confirmed the move on Wednesday. Skinner won the Native Diver in his most recent start Nov. 23 at Del Mar, and was nominated to the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. But the next start for Skinner is expected to be at Fair Grounds.
Golden State Racing, a consortium of owners, breeders, trainers, and the California Authority of Racing Fairs, has withdrawn plans to conduct a winter-spring meeting in Pleasanton, Calif., beginning later this month, according to an announcement Monday.
Golden State Racing was scheduled to request racing dates from the California Horse Racing Board at its monthly meeting on Thursday but will no longer pursue that plan, officials said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – An untimely setback has derailed Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Full Serrano, whose potentially lucrative winter campaign was originally scheduled to begin Dec. 26 in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes on opening day at Santa Anita.
“He’s going to be out 60 days,” trainer John Sadler said Monday at Santa Anita. Sadler declined to offer specifics, but suggested the injury was not serious. It happened at an inopportune time. The $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 22 in Saudi Arabia was Full Serrano’s main winter objective.
Coal Battle and Speed King, who finished a half-length apart when running one-two in Friday night’s $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park, could clash again in the upcoming 3-year-old series at Oaklawn Park.
Both horses were traveling to Oaklawn on Saturday morning, where their respective trainers, Lonnie Briley and Ron Moquett, have stables. The men each said a next race option for their charge is the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes on Jan. 25 at Oaklawn.
