Country Candy became a stakes winner last Saturday night at Evangeline Downs after having placed in stakes at Churchill Downs and Prairie Meadows. She captured the $60,000 Princess in Louisiana, invading from her base at Remington Park.
Trainer J.R. Caldwell said Country Candy is likely to make her next start at home in the $50,000 E.L. Gaylord. The 6 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies is Oct. 14.
G.R. Carter Jr., the all-time winningest rider in Quarter Horse racing, is coming out of retirement to ride Koolnfamous in the $3 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs on Monday, the New Mexico track announced. Carter has not ridden since December but recently worked horses at Remington Park in Oklahoma.
Carter began exercising horses at Ruidoso Downs on Aug. 26 and said he needs to lose 10 pounds to reach the 120-pound assignment for the All American Futurity.
Retama Park near San Antonio will make good use of its turf course during the 26-date meet that opens Friday night.
The track’s signature races, the El Joven and La Senorita stakes, are both on the grass, while the pair of stakes making up its annual Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame program will also be on turf. In addition, a starter handicap series on the grass that gets under way on opening night will be run through the closing-night card Nov. 26.
Retama will race every Friday and Saturday during the meet beginning at 6:45 p.m. Central.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown has won 23 turf races at the meet, including nine stakes, six of which were graded. On Saturday, he’ll have multiple runners in both graded turf stakes on the card.
In the Grade 3, $300,000 Saranac, for 3-year-olds, Brown will send out the trio of Camelot Kitten, Call Provision, and Ray’s The Bar in the seven-horse field.
Dave Hulkewicz is getting ready to return from a four-year layoff.
Hulkewicz, an owner who lives in Dallas, has been shopping for racing-age horses at Del Mar and said Monday during an auction at Lone Star Park that he would like to be active during the Oaklawn Park meet that opens in January.
“I just wanted to take a hiatus for a little bit, and I’m getting ready to get back in it,” he said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mike Lakow was back on the grounds at the New York Racing Association on Wednesday, only this time when he visited trainers, it was not to allot them stalls but rather to ask for mounts.
Lakow, who served as racing secretary at NYRA from 1993-2005, has been retained by three-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Javier Castellano to be his agent starting with the Belmont fall meet, which begins Sept. 9.
Castellano recently announced his split from agent Matt Muzikar after a seven-year relationship.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher will be represented in Saturday’s Grade 1 Spinaway by Cherry Lodge and Sweet Loretta, who are part of a seven-horse field entered for the seven-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies.
Though John Velazquez rode Sweet Loretta to a 4 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Schuylerville here on opening day, he will ride Cherry Lodge from post 5 in the $350,000 Spinaway. Velazquez rode Cherry Lodge to a one-length victory in an Aug. 7 maiden race. Javier Castellano will ride Sweet Loretta from the rail in the Spinaway.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Frosted will have eight challengers when he seeks his third straight Grade 1 victory in Saturday’s $600,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, and his biggest threat may come from his own barn.
Mubtaahij, who joined trainer Kiaran McLaughlin’s barn following his second-place finish in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in March, was among the horses entered against Frosted in the 1 1/8-mile Woodward.
The Woodward is one of four stakes on a 12-race Saturday card at Saratoga that includes the Grade 1 Spinaway, Grade 3 Saranac, and Grade 3 Glens Falls.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Miss Southern Miss, who starts in Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies, has been a puzzle for trainer Keith Desormeaux.
She beat maidens in her debut at Santa Anita in June and was second in the Landaluce Stakes there in July and in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 6.
Desormeaux has expected better performances and is hoping the seven-furlong distance of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante will lead to a breakthrough stakes win for Miss Southern Miss.
DEL MAR, Calif. – On Wednesday at Del Mar, Songbird had her first workout since winning the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 20. Songbird worked a half-mile in 47.60 seconds and was ready for action, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.
“When she has a few days off after her races, she wants to go,” Hollendorfer said. “Not overwhelmingly so, but she wants to train.
“She does things easily and galloped out the last quarter in 23.99 seconds. If I were a clocker, I’d give her breezing.”
