OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of King Kranz were prepared to run him back just one week after he finished last in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes on Jan. 30 at Aqueduct. As it turns out, King Kranz will have had five weeks between starts when he runs in Sunday’s $125,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes for 3-year-olds at six furlongs.
A field of seven was entered for the Winkfield, which will go as race 5 on Sunday’s nine-race program at Aqueduct.
A celebration of the life of longtime Maryland horsewoman Gretchen Mobberley will be held Monday at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Glenwood, Md. The noon service will be followed by a reception.
Mobberley, 84, died of cancer Feb. 21. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack. Together, the Mobberleys developed more than 20 stakes winners at their Summer Hill Farm in Howard County, Md.
Monmouth Park stall applications must be submitted to new racing secretary Mike Anifantis by March 10.
The Monmouth season opens May 14 and continues through September. The Monmouth backstretch is scheduled to open April 23, and stabling will be allowed through Oct. 28.
The Finger Lakes racing season will begin April 16 and span 155 racing days through Nov. 30.
Finger Lakes, which opened in 1962, will race Saturdays and Mondays until Tuesday racing begins April 26. A live card will be held on Kentucky Oaks Day, May 6.
Finger Lakes will begin a five-day-a-week schedule May 9. Racing will be held Mondays through Thursdays and on Saturdays.
A lot of work was done to level the inside base of the Parx racing surface prior to the meet. During opening week, the inner posts fared well going both short and long. Of the 14 sprint races run, posts 1 and 3 each produced four winners. In 12 two-turn races, three winners came from the inside post.
Velazquez nears 1,000 wins
Coming into this week’s races, trainer Alfredo Velazquez is two wins away from 1,000 career victories.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Untapable is not the only Breeders’ Cup winner residing in trainer Steve Asmussen’s stable at Oaklawn Park.
Regally Ready has been there, done that, too, and is still going strong at the age of 9. He will be looking for his second win of the year in the sixth race here Saturday – as well as career victory No. 20.
“Is he amazing or what?” Asmussen said on a recent morning at Oaklawn.
The Saturday card at Parx Racing includes a pair of one-mile allowance races for 3-year-olds. Race 5 is for fillies, and race 8 will match males.
Todd Pletcher looks to have the favorite in both races. Alto Belle will be heavily bet in the fifth, and Donegal Moon might be the choice over the Linda Rice-trained Hard Hitter in race 8.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A half-mile workout Thursday morning at Santa Anita by Nyquist moved the undefeated 3-year-old colt one step closer to an early-season showdown against undefeated Mohaymen in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 2 at Gulfstream Park.
Nyquist worked a half-mile Thursday in 48.80 under regular exercise rider Jonny Garcia. It was the colt’s first work since winning the Grade 2, seven-furlong San Vicente Stakes in his first start of the season on Feb. 15.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bolo, whose 1:33.09 mile last out was among the most impressive turf wins of the Santa Anita meet, will have a different rider if he runs March 12 in the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile.
Flavien Prat rode Bolo to victory last out in the Grade 2 Arcadia, but Prat is committed to ride Bal a Bali in the Kilroe for trainer Richard Mandella.
Patrick Valenzuela took off his mounts last Saturday and Sunday at Fair Grounds and is unlikely to ride again at the meet.
Valenzuela, 53, is among the best-known jockeys in racing, having launched a star-crossed career in 1978. He has been suspended multiple times in California, rode only 14 races in 2014, but was granted a license and came to Fair Grounds to ride in November.
