The lack of prominence from the Wesley Ward stable at Gulfstream Park this winter might be conspicuous – if not downright alarming – until you consider what’s behind it.
Ward had just one measly win and eight seconds from his first 24 starts at the nearly 3-month-old championship meet at Gulfstream in south Florida. It’s a stark departure from the status quo: Ward was in the Gulfstream top 10 in each of the last three years when averaging almost 22 wins a meet.
Jockey Kyle Frey, originally diagnosed with a fractured leg and arm after a spill Saturday, scored a pair of victories on Thursday’s seven-race card at Golden Gate Fields.
Frey won with No Ez Money ($3.80) in the first race and won the seventh Post Rock ($4.60).
Leading rider Russell Baze won four straight races with Worldly Vision ($3) in the second race, Warrens Lil Margie ($6.60) in the third, Staud’s Swish ($10.20) in the fourth, and Lizzy Marini ($3.60) in the fifth.
The connections of Quijote will resist the temptation of stretching the two-time-winning sprinter out in distance and will ship the 3-year-old gelding from Louisiana to New York for the $125,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct on March 6.
“I talked with Rich Papiese of Midwest Thoroughbreds, and we decided to keep him sprinting,” trainer Tom Amoss said Thursday. “Things open up in April, but they really didn’t right now.”
Pangburn, the winner of the Maryland Racing Media Stakes at Laurel Park on Feb. 13, is expected to wheel back in three weeks and run in the $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational for fillies and mares on the March 5 card at Aqueduct.
“She came out of the Laurel race well, and I think we’ll do that,” trainer Tony Dutrow said Thursday from Oaklawn.
The Heavenly Prize, formerly known as the Cat Cay, is run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns. Pangburn won the Maryland Racing Media and was beaten just a nose in last year’s Iowa Oaks under the same conditions.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse said Conquest Big E can’t stand the heat, so he plans to get him out of south Florida.
Casse said Thursday that Conquest Big E likely will make his next start in the Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 5. The horse was scheduled to breeze Friday morning at Palm Meadows in south Florida, and provided all goes well, he will ship here Tuesday.
“I got to keep him out of the heat,” Casse said. “That limits my options.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Street Fancy, who won the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos in December, is being considered for races at Fair Grounds, Oaklawn Park, and Santa Anita, trainer Phil D’Amato said.
The $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on March 5 is the local option, but D’Amato is not keen on possibly facing Songbird, the undefeated champion 2-year-old filly of 2015.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The $350,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland may be the next start for Paulina’s Love, winner of the $202,070 Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday.
Trainer Richard Baltas said Wednesday afternoon that he has yet to finalize a next race for Paulina’s Love, who won her first stakes in the Grade 2 Buena Vista at a mile on turf for fillies and mares. The Grade 1 Jenny Wiley, to be run April 16, also is run at a mile on turf for fillies and mares.
ARCADIA, Calif. – When David Fitzgerald steps into the Santa Anita announcer’s booth on Saturday for the first day of a two-day audition, he will be in the midst of his first trip to the United States.
Fitzgerald, 31, lives in England, where he has developed a growing reputation as a top young race-caller. Beginning in 2014, he was one of three announcers who split duties during the five-day Royal Ascot meeting. Last June at Ascot, Fitzgerald called the Ascot Gold Cup and the 30-runner Royal Hunt Cup, run at a straightaway mile.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Leah Gyarmati was planning to run Busanda runner-up Scatoosh in the Busher Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct, but the filly suffered a catastrophic breakdown in a workout on Feb. 18. Scatoosh, a daughter of Scat Daddy who brought $150,000 as a yearling, had one win and four seconds from seven starts.
“She’s probably the one horse in the barn I’d never had a single soundness issue with,” Gyarmati said.
Candy My Boy could not win a $15,000 maiden claimer last October at Indiana Grand, but he ran a fairly remarkable race to finish a close fourth Saturday in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Breaking from the outside post in a field of 11, Candy My Boy had to be hustled hard to get to his preferred spot on the lead, which meant going a first quarter-mile in 22.95 seconds, a pace basically unheard of in Fair Grounds route races.
