ARCADIA, Calif. – Donworth caught bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill’s attention at last November’s Keeneland breeding stock sale at about the same time that O’Neill was ready to leave for his California home.
O’Neill, the brother of trainer Doug O’Neill, took one look at the then-3-year-old Donworth and changed his schedule. He called his principal client, Paul Reddam, in Southern California and discussed buying the horse.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sunday’s card featured impressive debut victories by the 3-year-old fillies Lightstream and Just Talkin.
Lightstream earned an eye-catching 103 Beyer Speed Figure in winning at first asking, going seven furlongs on dirt with Julien Leparoux aboard for trainer Brian Lynch. It was the highest Beyer by a 3-year-old of either sex in 2016.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Marcus Vitali said his handicap star, Valid, appears to have come out of Saturday’s Gulfstream Park Handicap none the worse for wear after being knocked sideways by Anchor Down while rallying at midstretch of the Grade 2 fixture for older horses.
“Other than a few cuts, he seemed fine this morning,” Vitali said on Sunday. “We’ll know for sure in a couple of days, but at the moment, he seems to have come out of it okay.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mongolian Saturday is among the nominees for Saturday’s $75,000 Silks Run Stakes. But trainer Enibesh Ganbat said he will skip the race with the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner, who instead will run in the $1 million Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai on March 26.
Mongolian Saturday has not raced since finishing fifth in the Hong Kong Sprint on Dec. 13. He missed a scheduled start here this winter due to a minor setback, was sent briefly to the farm to recuperate, and has been back at Gulfstream for the past several weeks preparing for the Al Quoz Sprint.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Cherry Wine, who missed an opportunity to compete for Kentucky Derby qualifying points when coming down with a slight temperature days before the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, will get that chance March 19 at Oaklawn Park in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes, trainer Dale Romans said on Monday.
Cherry Wine is a son of Paddy O’Prado who Romans believes will get better the farther he goes. Cherry Wine has won his last two starts, both at 1 1/16 miles, by a combined 15 1/4 lengths, including a first-level allowance race here Jan. 9.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Georgia Hickman, a longtime owner who raced at Oaklawn, died Feb. 28 in Ft. Worth, Texas, according to her trainer, Walter Fite. She was 90.
Fite said Hickman and her husband, A.D. Hickman, owned horses for about 20 years, among them Windy Jake, Explosive Lady, and Georgia’s Cantina. Fite said the Hickmans would live in Hot Springs during the Oaklawn meet, with their main home in Texas.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Steve Asmussen had a pair of Grade 1 winners out for works Monday at Oaklawn Park, with champion Untapable tuning up for the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri and Nickname breezing for the Grade 3, $200,000 Honeybee.
Untapable will be starting her 5-year-old season in the Azeri on March 19 at Oaklawn. Nickname, the winner of last year’s Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park, will be making her second start of the year in the Honeybee on Saturday at Oaklawn.
The horses worked early Monday over a fast track on a clear morning in the 60s.
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.
