Runhappy, the Eclipse Award-winning sprinter of 2015, will have his 4-year-old debut delayed after being diagnosed with a heel bruise that forced trainer Laura Wohlers to stop on the colt’s training for several days.
Wohlers said Thursday from the Thoroughbred Center training facility in Lexington, Ky., that Runhappy sustained the injury to his right hind hoof shortly after he resumed galloping following a winter rest.
When Tom Benson, through his wife Gayle Benson’s GMB Racing, jumped back into the Thoroughbred game for the first time in decades, buying a handful of yearlings in 2014, it’s unlikely that even the rosiest plan envisioned coming up with two Kentucky Derby starters in 2016. But with a little more than a month until the Kentucky Derby, that’s the position in which the Bensons find themselves, with both Tom’s Ready, who was second in the Louisiana Derby, and Mo Tom, a vastly troubled fourth, now bedded down at Churchill Downs and ready to begin their final major Derby preparations.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Dale Romans said he isn’t done with American racing and doesn’t plan to go to Hong Kong anytime soon.
Comments attributed to Romans in a story in the South China Morning Post said the Eclipse Award-winning trainer was done with American racing and was interested in plying his trade in Hong Kong.
“I’m ready for an adventure, and I’m so sick of what’s happened to the sport in the U.S. I’m done with it,” Romans, who was in Dubai last weekend to run Keen Ice in the Dubai World Cup, was quoted as saying.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Grand Tito and Kaigun, the one-two finishers from the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida here on March 5, head the field for Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Pan American at 1 1/2 miles on turf.
Meanwhile, Twilight Eclipse, who won this race in 2013 and set a world record for the distance, was entered for the main track only. Trainer Tom Albertrani said he didn’t feel Twilight Eclipse handled the Gulfstream turf course when finishing seventh in the Mac Diarmida.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The filly Gomo was more than a travel companion for the champion Nyquist on his cross-country journey for Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. She is a major player in the Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks on the same card.
Gomo was one of seven 3-year-old fillies entered in the Oaks, a 1 1/16-mile race that offers 170 qualifying points (100-40-20-10) toward the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 6.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– He’s Comin in Hot, the winner of the Grade 3 Bashford Manor last year at Churchill Downs, might launch his 3-year-old season in the $150,000 Bachelor, a six-furlong race April 15 at Oaklawn. Trainer Bret Calhoun said He’s Comin in Hot also will be considered for the $50,000 Premiere Stakes on April 7 at Lone Star.
He’s Comin in Hot last raced in September, finishing second in the $79,000 Kip Deville at Remington. He won a $75,000 division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Retama Park last year.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– Cosmic Evolution, who finished third in the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn in her two-turn debut March 12, breezed right after the track opened for training here Wednesday. She went five furlongs in 1:01.80 on a surface rated fast. Clockers had her galloping out six furlongs in 1:15.20.
Trainer Lon Wiggins said Cosmic Evolution will run next in the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy for 3-year-old fillies on April 9 at Oaklawn. The race offers qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks on May 6.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– Shotgun Kowboy, who finished a close fourth to Upstart in the Grade 3, $350,000 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn on March 19, is being pointed for the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile on May 6 at Lone Star Park, said his breeder, owner, and trainer, C.R. Trout.
Beyond that race, he said, the horse is a candidate for the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap on May 30.
Mor Spirit, a two-time stakes winner and a leading West Coast contender for the Triple Crown, worked five furlongs in 59 seconds at Santa Anita on Wednesday in preparation for the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Mor Spirit worked the opening quarter-mile in 23.20 seconds and a half-mile in 47.20 seconds, according to Santa Anita clockers.
“He broke off way behind a horse and went well,” Baffert said. “I was happy with it. Everything looks good. I’ve been lucky with the weather. I get to train him the way I want to.”
X Y Jet came out of Saturday’s second-place finish in the Dubai Golden Shaheen with a small chip in his left knee, according to trainer Jorge Navarro.
“He never took a bad step but came back from the race with some heat in the knee, and we discovered a small flake upon taking an X-ray,” said Navarro. “He’ll go to Kentucky for surgery and should be able to be back sometime this summer and still make it to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.”
