ARCADIA, Calif. - A day after Nyquist finished third in the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, jockey Mario Gutierrez won the feature race at Santa Anita – the $200,345 Californian Stakes with Second Summer.
The victory was his first mount since the Preakness and was a welcome distraction.
ARCADIA, Calif. - John F Kennedy, a one-time future book favorite for the 2015 English Derby, has been retired after sustaining an injury in his American debut on May 15.
Trainer Paulo Lobo said on Sunday that the injury does not require surgery and that John F Kennedy will be shipped to Argentina soon to begin stud service when the Southern Hemisphere breeding season begins in August.
Lobo said that John F Kennedy would “need a lot of time” to return to racing.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The upcoming Memorial Day weekend has seven six-figure stakes from Saturday through Monday, the busiest stretch of stakes at Santa Anita’s spring-summer meeting, which runs through July 10.
Saturday’s program has five stakes for California-breds, ranging in value from $100,000 to $200,000. Sunday’s main race is the $200,000 Charles Whittingham Stakes, a Grade 2 stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Monday’s top race is the $300,000 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf, the first of five Grade 1 races at the meeting.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Southern California freeways are likely to be the extent of travel this year for Wild Dude, the winner of Saturday’s $201,035 Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita.
Sunday, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Wild Dude will “absolutely” be pointed for the $300,000 Triple Bend Stakes, a Grade 1 at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on June 25. Hollendorfer said the long-range goal for Wild Dude is the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5, and that out-of-state races are doubtful this year.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A six-furlong team work by Stellar Wind and company did not start out as planned Sunday at Santa Anita, but it ended just fine. For trainer John Sadler, the finish of the work was more important anyway.
Jockey Victor Espinoza was aboard Stellar Wind. The plan was to break off behind a workmate, thereby giving Stellar Wind a target. But the workmate was slow to get started, and the two horses instead broke off together.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Songbird picked up where she left off. The undefeated filly worked an effortless half-mile Sunday at Santa Anita in 46.40 seconds, breezing, her first drill since an illness interrupted her spring campaign.
The champion 2-year-old filly of 2015 and winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks her most recent start April 9, Songbird got sick after the Oaks and did not train for 17 days. She resumed light training May 1; the Sunday drill was her first work back.
BALTIMORE - Go Maggie Go, winner of Friday’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico, will be pointed to the Grade 1, $700,000 Acorn on June 11 at Belmont Park, trainer Dale Romans said Sunday.
In that one-turn mile race, Go Maggie Go is expected to face Cathryn Sophia, who handed Go Maggie Go her only defeat in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 6.
Asked why he would run Go Maggie Go for a third time in five weeks, Romans said, “because she can. She’s a throwback, a durable old mare. If she’s doing good, why not? Because the numbers say I need more time?”
BALTIMORE - Trainer Doug O’Neill was heading back to Southern California on Sunday morning, but a small contingent of his stable - led by Kentucky Derby winner and beaten Preakness favorite Nyquist - were heading to New York on Monday.
Nyquist, who finished third to Exaggerator in Saturday’s sloppy $1.5 million Preakness, was reported to have come out of his third-place finish in good order and will be pointed to the Belmont Stakes and a rematch with Exaggerator on June 11.
BALTIMORE -- Exaggerator and Nyquist, winners of the first two legs of the Triple Crown, both emerged from the Preakness Stakes on Saturday in good order and are set to meet again in the final leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, on June 11, their trainers said Sunday morning.
The Preakness marked their fifth meeting, but it was the first time Exaggerator prevailed. He got a Beyer Speed Figure of 101. Keith Desormeaux, who trains Exaggerator, said he would remain here at Pimlico until next Sunday before heading to Belmont Park.
BALTIMORE – Noble Bird, the runaway winner of the $300,000 Pimlico Special on Friday, came out of his 11 1/4-length victory in good shape, Norm Casse said Saturday morning.
"I'm more tired than he is," Casse said. "He came out of the race fine and ate up well."
The victory redeemed Noble Bird for his eighth-place finish as the 2-1 favorite in the Grade 2 Alysheba at Churchill Downs two weeks ago. Noble Bird hopped in the air at the start of the Alysheba to get away behind the field and then was rank when jockey Julien Leparoux tried to rate him.
