Indiana Grand Racing & Casino in Shelbyville opens a 120-day meet Tuesday looking stronger and stronger among second-tier Midwestern racetracks.
With Illinois racing still reeling and Prairie Meadows in Iowa just trying to hold the status quo, the niche Indiana Grand has carved since harness racing moved exclusively to Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand became the state’s sole Thoroughbred track in 2013 has only grown wider in the regional marketplace.
CYPRESS, Calif. - At 6, Boozer may be on the verge of a career change.
Saturday at Los Alamitos, Boozer won the third stakes of his career in the $100,345 Bertrando Stakes for California-breds, his stakes debut on dirt. The win left trainer Mark Glatt contemplating other stakes on dirt in coming weeks, such as the $150,000 Tiznow Stakes for California-breds at a mile at Santa Anita on May 28.
“It adds another dimension,” Glatt said of the win. “It gives us other options.”
CYPRESS, Calif.- Jockey Edwin Maldonado won two stakes for the first time in his career at Los Alamitos on Saturday. The milestone nearly didn’t happen because of California’s rules regarding jockeys who ride stakes during routine suspensions.
On April 10, Santa Anita stewards suspended Maldonado for Saturday’s program at Los Alamitos because he rode two graded stakes at Keeneland on April 9 while serving a suspension for a routine riding infraction.
ARCADIA, Calif.- The recent death of a War Front colt out of Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year, has left the popular mare with two surviving foals – the active racehorses Cozmic One and Ziconic.
Trainer John Shirreffs said over the weekend that he is hopeful both can start in maiden races at Santa Anita in May for owners and breeders Jerry and Ann Moss, who campaigned the immensely popular Zenyatta.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Jockey Fernando Perez will resume riding at Los Alamitos on Thursday, 11 days after he was unseated from his mount following a race at Santa Anita on April 10.
Perez was unseated from Cardiac after the San Juan Capistrano Stakes while galloping the 4-year-old back to be unsaddled. Perez initially had X-rays taken on a knee on the evening of the race, and later experienced dizziness that led one doctor to conclude the rider may have sustained a concussion in the fall.
Cupid, who finished 10th in Saturday’s $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park as the 4-5 favorite, will be sent from Arkansas to Kentucky in coming days while trainer Bob Baffert contemplates the colt’s next race.
Baffert, who watched the race from his home in Southern California, said on Sunday that he not decided whether Cupid will start in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 7.
“He’s waiting to go to Kentucky,” he said. “We’re on a wait-and-see basis. We’ll give him a week to chill.
“He just didn’t run. He didn’t fire.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Creator, Suddenbreakingnews, and Whitmore, the first three finishers in the Arkansas Derby here at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, all emerged from the race in good order and, with sufficient points for all safely tucked away, will take up three of the 20 spots in the Kentucky Derby field at Churchill Downs on May 7.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Forever Unbridled, who won the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap on Friday, emerged from the race in "excellent" condition, trainer Dallas Stewart said Saturday.
"She has that bright look in her eye," he said.
Stewart said Forever Unbridled will ship Sunday to Churchill Downs. He said the track's upcoming race for her division, the Grade 1, $300,000 La Troienne on May 6, comes up too quickly for Forever Unbridled. In the Apple Blossom, she was making her first start since winning the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 30.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tampa Bay Derby winner Destin, who will go into the Kentucky Derby without a race in eight weeks, continues to progress nicely toward that goal after working five furlongs in 1:00.89 over a "good" racetrack at Palm Beach Downs on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Thirteen Arrows, a two-time stakes winner who recently joined trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s Southern California stable, will have her first start on the West Coast in the $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes at Los Alamitos on April 23.
The Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes is run at 6 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares and is the top race of the Los Alamitos spring meeting that runs through May 1.
On Saturday at Los Alamitos, Thirteen Arrows worked five furlongs in 1:00.60.
