Santa Anita has eliminated 11 stakes, and reduced purses for three major races – the Santa Anita Derby, Santa Anita Handicap, and Santa Anita Oaks – for the forthcoming winter-spring meeting from Dec. 26 to June 15, the track announced on Thursday.
Overall, prize money in the stakes program has been reduced by $1.675 million from the 2023-24 meeting. In a statement, the track indicated that some of those monies will be redirected to overnight purses.
Nobody calls New Orleans a straightforward city. The streets, many still paved in brick, hew to the Mississippi River’s serpentine path. New Orleanians don’t refer to cardinal or ordinal directions. Uptown, The Quarter, the 9th ward, by the lake – local points of reference replace north, south, east, and west.
Jockeys Flavien Prat, Jose Ortiz, and Brian Hernandez Jr. are among the nationally prominent riders headed to Zia Park on Tuesday for the Land of Enchantment card. Zia has seven stakes that day worth a cumulative $1.1 million, led by the $300,000 Zia Park Derby and $300,000 Zia Park Oaks.
Ortiz will team with trainer Steve Asmussen in all seven stakes. His mounts include supplement Dimatic in the 10-horse Zia Derby, Lemonesse in the 11-horse Zia Oaks, millionaire Jaxon Traveler in the $100,000 Zia Park Sprint, and stakes winner Unload in the $125,000 Championship.
South Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. plans to have group of about 16 to 20 horses at Oaklawn Park for the meet that runs from December to May.
The Oaklawn string will be a first for Joseph, who has shipped in for a handful of stakes in the past. Earlier this year, he saddled Skippylongstocking to win the Grade 2, $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap.
Joseph said he had owners reach out to him about the possibility of setting up a division at Oaklawn.
Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse plans to have a division of about 20 horses at the Oaklawn Park meet that opens Dec. 6 in Hot Springs, Ark.
Casse’s primary winter base is South Florida. He also operates a training center in Ocala, Fla. He said it’s been about four or five years since he’s had a string at Oaklawn.
“We have some nice 2-year-olds turning 3 that we’re sending,” he said, “and then we do have some older horses, as well. It’s an assortment.”
Total handle and average handle per race increased marginally during the recently completed Horseshoe Indianapolis meet this year when compared to last year’s meet, when handle increased by double digits, according to an analysis conducted by Daily Racing Form.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Following a spate of injuries on the synthetic Tapeta surface, Woodbine has hired longtime track superintendent Juan Meza as a racing surfaces consultant.
Meza served as the track super at Golden Gate Fields for more than two decades until the Northern California track ceased operations last June. Golden Gate also had a Tapeta surface.
Meza brings an extensive knowledge of Tapeta to Woodbine and has worked closely alongside surface manufacturer Tapeta Footings. He will work in coordination with Ryan Stafford, Woodbine’s director of racing surfaces.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Antonio of Venice, a three-time stakes winner last winter and spring, is set to return from a seven-month layoff in Saturday’s $125,000 Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Series.
Antonio of Venice, a 3-year-old son of Laoban, won the $500,000 Great White Way last December. After getting upset at 4-5 in the Rego Park Stakes in January, Antonio of Venice won the Damon Runyon by 9 1/4 lengths and then the Times Square division of the NYSS by 2 1/4 lengths in April.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While New York-bred juvenile fillies Shoot It True and With the Angels were impressive winning stakes at Aqueduct over the weekend, it was the maiden New York-bred colt Calling Card who may have given the “wow” performance of the young fall meet with a 17 1/4-length score in a one-mile maiden race in Sunday’s last race.
After their remarkable two-day early May run for trainer Kenny McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., the 3-year-old campaigns of Thorpedo Anna, who won the Kentucky Oaks, and Mystik Dan, who captured the Kentucky Derby a day later, sharply diverged. Now, the pair is set to come together for a winter in New Orleans.
Thorpedo Anna remains in Kentucky but soon will join Derby winner Mystik Dan at Fair Grounds, with both 3-year-olds on track to race in 2025.
