HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Rebel Stakes week started with a bang Monday at Oaklawn Park, where Suddenbreakingnews led a group of eight contenders working for the Grade 2, $900,000 race here Saturday. He also was joined on the work tab by the champions Untapable and Idolo Porteno, who tuned up for starts on the same card in the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri and the Grade 3, $350,000 Razorback.
The undefeated stakes-winning sprinter El Deal could return to the races within the next week, trainer Andrew Lakeman said.
Lakeman said there are races at Parx on Sunday and Monday for which El Deal is eligible. El Deal, a son of Munnings who has won all four of his starts, has not raced since winning the Gold Fever Stakes at Belmont last May 1. He was given time off due to bone remodeling of the ankles, Lakeman said.
The 8-year-old New York-bred mare Willet will get another chance to leave the track a winner in Saturday’s $125,000 Correction Stakes at Aqueduct.
It was believed that last month’s Broadway Stakes, in which she was beaten a neck, was to be the final start of Willet’s career before she headed to the breeding shed and a date with Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. But trainer and part-owner Jimmy Iselin said there’s time for one more race, and after Willet breezed five furlongs in 1:01.21 on Sunday at Aqueduct, Iselin decided to run her in the Correction.
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.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With a marquee matchup between Mohaymen and Nyquist likely, trainer Todd Pletcher is considering taking arguably his top Kentucky Derby prospect, Zulu, elsewhere rather than meeting the two division leaders in the $1 million Florida Derby here April 2.
Nominating horses to stakes races is part of the price of doing business when you have a talented runner. The connections of 10 older fillies and mares spent $50 each to nominate them for Saturday’s $50,000 Camilla Urso at Golden Gate Fields. They also spent $100 each to nominate them for Sunday’s Grade 3 Las Flores at Santa Anita.
Living The Life, who won the Camilla Urso last year, was nominated to this year’s edition, but trainer Gary Mandella said she will run Saturday in the Grade 1, $500,000 Santa Margarita at Santa Anita.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tampa Bay Downs officials on Saturday were celebrating a successful Festival Day card during which 10,206 racing fans packed the facility and the program’s four stakes races each were decided by one length or less.
Though the attendance figure did not rank among the top 10 figures in track history, all-sources handle on the 12-race card totaled $12.25 million, easily breaking the track record of $10.95 million set on Festival Day in 2011, the track said. Ontrack wagering on Saturday totaled $815,918.
Kobe’s Back, who won his second straight stakes race in the Grade 2 San Carlos on Saturday at Santa Anita, could head to Kentucky for his next start. His trainer, Pete Eurton, said the Grade 2, $500,000 Churchill Downs Handicap on May 7 – Kentucky Derby Day – is something he and owners Lee and Susan Searing are strongly considering.
The Churchill Downs, like the San Carlos, is at seven furlongs.
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.
