Unlike next Saturday’s Florida Derby, in which few are eager to enter horses against Kentucky Derby favorites Mohaymen and Nyquist, Turfway Park’s Grade 3 Spiral Stakes that same day is expected to be overflowing.
With the race offering a $500,000 purse and lacking a standout 3-year-old, a full field is likely, and if overdrawn, some horses could have to run in the $100,000 Rushaway on the undercard as an alternative.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The calendar has not worked in favor of Curlin Rules, who starts in an optional claimer for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Curlin Rules won a maiden race at 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 21 in his second start and his first race around two turns.
“I’m probably late for the Derby,” trainer John Sadler, referring to any hope of a trip to Kentucky on May 7.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The champions Beholder and Nyquist had widely diverging workouts at Santa Anita on Friday.
Beholder, who has won three Eclipse Awards, including the 2015 prize as champion older female, worked five furlongs in company with a stablemate in 1:01.60. Trainer Richard Mandella timed the workout in 1:02. Nyquist, the champion 2-year-old male of 2015, was given an official workout time of five furlongs in 1:03 but actually put in a hybrid of a gallop and a workout at a mile.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Larry Jones will be running the 3-year-old colt Jensen in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes on April 2 at Turfway Park, but he did not nominate him to the Triple Crown at the second deadline Monday.
“I think we have a decent horse,’’ Jones said. “I don’t want to get caught up in it. We can dodge the heavy heads and run for a lot of money in Grade 2s and Grade 3s and take them on at the end of the year.’’
Jensen won a maiden race and a first-level allowance race at this meet.
NEW ORLEANS – The race for leading trainer at the meet might not be settled until Sunday, closing day. Through Thursday, Mike Stidham led with 35 wins. Joe Sharp stood second with 32, and Tom Amoss was third with 29.
Stidham, who entered seven horses for races Friday and Saturday, has nine entrants Sunday. Sharp, who entered 16 horses for races Friday and Saturday, has six entrants Sunday. Amoss, who entered nine horses for races Friday and Saturday, has three entrants Sunday.
NEW ORLEANS – Andy Leggio Jr., who has been a trainer for more than 45 years and probably is best known for developing the Grade 1-winning Louisiana-bred Happy Ticket, will retire when this Fair Grounds meet ends Sunday.
After running the Louisiana-bred claimer Hey Meestermeester in the 10th race, Leggio, 82, will hand the reins of the stable to his son Nick.
“It’s been a good run for me,’’ Andy Leggio said. “Can’t complain. Had some great owners – Stewart Madison, Dr. Glen Warren. He started with me more than 25 years ago; Stewart, about the same time.’’
ARCADIA, Calif. – Michael Wrona was driving from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles on Wednesday when a Santa Anita executive called to inform him that he had won the job as the track’s full-time announcer.
“I was pleased to be on a long, straight stretch of highway,” Wrona recalled on Thursday. “It was a bolt out of the blue.”
Call Pat and the champion Untapable, who were separated by a neck when finishing one-two in the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri last Saturday at Oaklawn, are headed for a rematch in the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 15 at Oaklawn. Call Pat won her second straight graded stakes at the meet and used her patented closing kick to get up nearing the wire. Trainer Brad Cox said Call Pat came out of the race “awesome” and will target the Apple Blossom.
Idolo Porteno, the 2014 Horse of the Year in Argentina who ran a game third in the Grade 3, $350,000 Razorback Handicap last Saturday at Oaklawn, will now focus on turf racing, said trainer Ignacio Correas.
Idolo Porteno, a Group 1 winner on dirt and turf, was making his North American debut in the Razorback. He shipped Tuesday from Oaklawn, where he has been based over the winter, to Keeneland.
Collected won the richest and longest race of his young career last Sunday in the $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes, and the 3-year-old has a host of options going forward, according to trainer Bob Baffert. Collected, who in January won the Grade 3 Sham at his base of Santa Anita, earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 90 in Sunday’s 1 1/8-mile race at Sunland.
