Siding Spring, who ran fifth in the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest last Monday at Oaklawn Park in his first start since the Breeders’ Cup, will be considered for the Rebel Stakes, said trainer Mark Casse. The Grade 2, $900,000 race will be run March 19.
Siding Spring broke from the No. 11 hole in the Southwest, set the pace, and finished 6 1/4 lengths behind the winner, Suddenbreakingnews. For the effort, Siding Spring earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 83.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Dothraki Queen showed immediate talent last year at 2, romping in her career debut on turf and winning the Grade 2 Pocahontas one start later at Churchill Downs. She’s now gearing up for her 3-year-old season, and one potential race on her calendar is the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy at her Oaklawn Park base April 9, said trainer Ken McPeek.
Voodoo Spell won the eighth race at Fair Grounds on Thursday. Of course he did. The race was a turf sprint written for $5,000 starter-allowance horses or $10,000 claimers, and Voodoo Spell is virtually unbeatable in races like that. On Thursday, he moved to the lead more than a furlong out with the greatest of ease, but, being Voodoo Spell, he decided that his work was done, immediately putting on the brakes before doing just enough to win by a half-length.
The Pizza Man came out of his fifth-place finish as the heavy favorite Feb. 13 in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Handicap in good shape, trainer Roger Brueggemann said Friday, and is back to regular galloping here at Fair Grounds.
Though The Pizza Man would be either the favorite or the second choice while walking out of his stall to race in the $300,000 Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Memorial Handicap here on March 26, The Pizza Man will be shipped to California to make his next start March 13 in the $200,000 San Luis Rey Stakes over 1 1/2 miles.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The recent stakes winners Kobe’s Back and What a View are expected to start in lucrative graded stakes March 12 at Santa Anita Park.
Kobe’s Back, who won his 2016 debut in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes, is a probable starter in the $300,000 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs. Trainer Peter Eurton said he considered sending Kobe’s Back to races at Aqueduct and Keeneland but is opting to stay in California. He cited the distance of the San Carlos as part of the decision.
“We want to stay home and ship less,” he said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Steve Willard, a former jockey who later exercised such notable runners as Gate Dancer, Gentleman, and the famous mare Zenyatta, died Tuesday, according to trainer John Shirreffs.
Willard was 71. He died at a local hospital. Willard had been treated for pancreatic cancer in recent years, Shirreffs said on Friday.
Willard was closely associated with Zenyatta through her racing career from 2007-10. Willard said he planned to retire when Zenyatta left the track at the end of 2010, but he stayed with Shirreffs into 2011.
NEW ORLEANS – It’s unfortunate that Fair Grounds has no real stakes program for older female dirt-route horses because there are several really good ones stabled on the track’s backstretch this winter.
The most accomplished of the bunch, Untapable, had her strongest work since she resumed training following a late-fall, early-winter break, going five furlongs in 1:01.80 on Thursday.
“It was beautiful,” said Scott Blasi, Fair Grounds assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. “I love her energy since she’s come back.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mohaymen had his final work for next Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth when breezing an easy half-mile in 49.60 seconds Friday at Palm Meadows with regular exercise rider Miguel Jaime aboard.
“We don’t need 47s every week,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said, referring to Mohaymen’s bullet 47.75-second half-mile drill one week earlier. “He went great. He started out a little slow, going 13 and 3 the first eighth, and finished in 35 and 4, then kept going after it. All is well. We’re ready for next week.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hard Aces, the winner of the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita last June who was later sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in October, is a candidate for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 12, trainer John Sadler said on Friday.
Hard Aces will be a longshot in the Big Cap, which is run at 1 1/4 miles. A 6-year-old, Hard Aces has started twice at the current winter-spring meeting, finishing fourth behind California Chrome in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes on Jan. 9 and fifth behind Hoppertunity in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 6.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sunday’s $65,000 Margate Handicap didn’t seem to hold much significance when the 2015-16 stakes schedule came out, as it is positioned just six days before the Grade 2 Davona Dale, one of the most significant races for 3-year-old fillies on the East Coast this winter.
But the Margate suddenly took on added importance when the entries closed Thursday, with the connections of Tap to It and Off the Tracks choosing the 6 1/2-furlong dash as the starting point to what they hope will be a big season for their lightly raced fillies.
