OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jose Ortiz recorded the first five-win day of his career Sunday at Aqueduct. Ortiz, 22, had five wins and a second from seven mounts.
Ortiz also won four races on Saturday’s program and rode 11 winners for the four-day race week. He opened up a 72-66 lead over his brother Irad Ortiz Jr. in the race for leading rider at the Aqueduct inner-track meet. Jose Ortiz won last year’s inner-track meet, 77-67, over Irad.
Jose Ortiz’s agent is Jim Riccio Jr.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Eric Cancel, the runner-up in the voting for an Eclipse Award as leading apprentice jockey in 2015, will start life as a journeyman Thursday.
Cancel, 19, has won 125 races from 1,090 mounts since starting his career at Gulfstream Park last March. Cancel moved his tack to New York four weeks later and has never left. He led all apprentice riders in purse money won in 2015 with $5.3 million but finished second in the voting to Tyler Gaffalione.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While trainer Todd Pletcher sorts out who his top 3-year-old route horse could be, it’s starting to become clear who the leader is of his 3-year-old sprint division.
Awesome Gent stepped out of New York-bred company to dominate Sunday’s $125,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes by four lengths at Aqueduct. He ran six furlongs in 1:10.60 and earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure.
It was his third straight victory, all since being gelded following an eighth-place finish in his debut.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There’s a good chance that Shagaf won’t be trainer Chad Brown’s only starter in the Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 9.
While Shagaf punched his ticket to the Wood Memorial by virtue of his victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes, Brown was heartened by what he saw from Flexibility on Sunday morning and from My Man Sam on Sunday afternoon, which could lead to one or both also aiming for the Wood Memorial.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Several stars are coming out for the richest day in the 90-year history of Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday, with Grade 1 winner Brody’s Cause headlining the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby and champion mare Tepin going in the Grade 2, $200,000 Hillsborough Stakes. The card will offer more than $1 million in purses, including $850,000 in stakes purses.
The card also features the Grade 3, $200,000 Florida Oaks, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies, and the $100,000 Challenger Stakes, for older males at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Effinex, second to American Pharoah in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland last October, will carry top weight of 123 pounds for his 2016 debut in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday.
Owned by Tri-Bone Stables, Effinex has not raced since winning the fourth stakes of his career in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs last November.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Songbird’s attitude and physical health matched her race record on Sunday, a day after the champion extended her unbeaten streak to six in the $101,380 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita.
“She’s perfect,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.
Songbird won the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles by 3 3/4 lengths over Land Over Sea, although the margin was deceptive. Jockey Mike Smith did not urge Songbird in the last furlong. She led by six lengths with a furlong remaining.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Big Macher, the five-time stakes winner, has been turned out with a soft tissue injury, trainer Richard Baltas said over the weekend.
Baltas said Big Macher will not return to racing until the late summer or autumn.
“He’s getting a little rest,” he said. “He’ll be out for three to six months. I don’t think it’s career-ending. The horse isn’t 100 percent.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Plans have changed frequently for Bal a Bali in the last two years.
When Bal a Bali arrived in the United States in the summer of 2014, trainer Richard Mandella hoped the horse could be a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup. A bout with laminitis ended those plans and delayed Bal a Bali’s debut in this country until last May.
