ARCADIA, Calif. – The options trainer David Hofmans envisioned for Melatonin looked far more enticing on Sunday morning than they had the prior morning, before Melatonin pulled off a 16-1 upset under Joe Talamo in the Santa Anita Handicap.
“We took a shot. It wasn’t the strongest field,” Hofmans said Sunday morning.
Danzing Candy and Mor Spirit, who finished one-two in the Grade 2 San Felipe on Saturday, are likely to meet again April 9 in the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby, the final local prep for the Kentucky Derby on May 7.
Danzing Candy scored a two-length victory over Mor Spirit while earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 100. It was his third straight win, all at this meet, all with Mike Smith aboard.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The logistics of getting Salutos Amigos to Dubai for the $2 million Golden Shaheen on March 26 turned out to be more difficult than trainer David Jacobson had hoped so the 6-year-old gelding instead will make his next start in the Grade 1, $400,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 9.
Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, which is conducting a meet for Quarter Horses, has called off racing from Saturday through Wednesday due to extensive flooding in the area, said Trent McIntosh, the track’s director of operations. McIntosh said an ontrack casino was closed down at 1 p.m. Central on Friday.
Louisiana Downs began evacuating horses Thursday night and had less than 100 head left to move as of midafternoon Friday, according to McIntosh. Louisiana Downs is scheduled to race through March 24.
Flora Dora, the winner of the Busher Stakes but fourth in the Busanda, worked a half-mile in 47.66 seconds Friday over the Belmont Park training track. It was the fastest of 47 works at the distance.
Flora Dora is targeting the Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle Stakes over Aqueduct’s main track April 9.
“We’re on track,” said trainer Marialice Coffey. “Everything is on go.”
Coffey said she is eager to get Flora Dora off the inner track. She said Flora Dora got cut up on her left hind leg in the Busher.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Gabriel Saez has bounced around from circuit to circuit throughout his career. In some respects, it has paid off. He has ridden a champion in Proud Spell and a Kentucky Derby favorite in Friesan Fire.
But Saez, 28, would like to settle down on the New York Racing Association circuit. He hopes he has taken a step in that direction with the winter meet he has had at Aqueduct. Through Thursday, Saez has ridden 19 winners, putting him in a tie for eighth in the inner-track standings. His 167 mounts are the second-fewest for any rider in the top 10.
Provided the track hasn’t washed away, Fair Grounds will host an 11-race card Monday, the final Monday program of the 2015-16 race meeting.
New Orleans was spared the brunt of the early portion of a massive rain event streaming north into Louisiana and neighboring states from the Gulf of Mexico starting Thursday, but close to two inches of rain fell overnight Thursday into Friday, and if the forecast holds, up to another six inches could fall before the system moves out of the area Saturday night.
Upstart, the winner of last year’s Grade 2 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park, is scheduled to ship in to Oaklawn Park for the Grade 3, $350,000 Razorback Handicap next Saturday, Elliott Walden said of the horse co-owned by WinStar. Rick Violette trains Upstart. The horse will be ridden by Joe Bravo.
“Rick is very happy with him, said he’s training well, and we thought it was a good place to go two turns first race back,” said Walden.
Upstart will be making his first start since September, when he was fifth in the Pennsylvania Derby.
Cupid, a stylish maiden-race winner Feb. 7 in his third start, worked six furlongs in 1:11.60 on Friday at Santa Anita.
Cupid was entered in Saturday’s $400,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, but trainer Bob Baffert said Cupid would be withdrawn in favor of a likely start in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 19.
There were 243 recorded works Friday in advance of an expected rainstorm later in the day.
