ARCADIA, Calif.- Masochistic is likely to make one start at the Del Mar summer meeting after scoring a dazzling win in his first start of 2016 in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on Friday.
Trainer Ron Ellis said he is pointing Masochistic for the $200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on Aug. 27, and has no plans for a start in the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs on July 31.
“We’ll keep him nice and fresh,” Ellis said.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Firing Line, second in the 2015 Kentucky Derby, has been taken out of training after being diagnosed with an illness following a fifth-place finish in an optional claimer on Saturday at Santa Anita.
The optional claimer was the first start in more than a year for Firing Line, who underwent surgery to have a bone chip removed from an ankle last summer after a seventh-place finish in the Preakness Stakes in May 2015.
ARCADIA, Calif. - One is a homebred from a breeder with a decades-long involvement in the sport. The other has been shopped around at sales up and down the West Coast and is available for sale again later this month.
The California-breds Theonewewaitedfor and California Diamond won the first stakes for 2-year-olds in Southern California at Santa Anita on Saturday. The way they were prepared to win the Landaluce Stakes and Santa Anita Juvenile could not be more diverse.
Parx Racing has added a new stakes to its schedule that is intended to serve as a prep for the Grade 1 Cotillion. The race fits nicely into the schedule of Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia, according to her trainer, John Servis.
The new race is the $150,000 Princess of Sylmar. It is for 3-year-old fillies at a mile. The Princess of Sylmar will be run Sept. 3, which is Pennsylvania's Day at the Races, when Parx will hold five $100,000 stakes for statebreds.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Three weeks out from his scheduled return to the races, Preakness winner Exaggerator returned to the work tab Saturday morning, breezing an easy half-mile in 51.63 seconds over the Belmont Park main track.
It was Exaggerator’s first workout since his 11th-place finish as the favorite in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 11. Exaggerator is working toward the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 30.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The popular champions Beholder, California Chrome, and Songbird had workouts at Los Alamitos and Santa Anita early Saturday in preparation for races at the end of this month.
California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, worked a mile in 1:39.60 at Los Alamitos at dawn. The winner of the Dubai World Cup on March 26, California Chrome is scheduled to start in the $200,000 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 23.
He’s Comin in Hot, the gelding who won last year’s Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs, has been retired, trainer Bret Calhoun said on Thursday. The horse was sent to Valor Farm, the 400-acre showplace facility in Pilot Point, Texas.
He’s Comin in Hot won a second-level allowance at Lone Star Park in his most recent start April 30. He is a son of Early Flayer and was bred by the Valor Farm operation of the late Clarence Scharbauer Jr.
Scharbauer’s son, Doug, raced He’s Comin in Hot, who also won a division of the Texas Stallion Stakes last year at Retama Park.
Texas Chrome is back home at Lone Star Park after a runner-up finish to American Freedom in the Grade 3 Iowa Derby on July 1 at Prairie Meadows. The effort came one start after Texas Chrome ran third to Gun Runner in the Grade 3 Matt Winn at Churchill Downs.
The stakes were the first graded appearances by multiple stakes winner Texas Chrome.
“We asked a lot of him to travel, to run in those races, and he ran two really nice races for us,” said J.R. Caldwell, who trains Texas Chrome for Keene Thoroughbreds.
Shotgun Kowboy could be headed to New Mexico.
The horse, who has finished second in three consecutive Grade 3 races since May, is being freshened and will be considered for the $175,000 Downs at Albuquerque Handicap on Aug. 6.
Shotgun Kowboy last raced July 2 and was just edged in the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows. Following the race, he was sent to the Oklahoma farm of his breeder, owner, and trainer, C.R. Trout.
Divisidero will make his next start in the Arlington Million on Aug. 13, trainer Buff Bradley said Thursday.
The 4-year-old colt worked five furlongs in 1:03 on dirt Friday at Churchill Downs, his first drill since finishing fifth in the $1 million Manhattan Stakes on June 11 at Belmont Park.
