HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Gordy Florida’s performance in last month’s $150,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park was one of the gutsiest in the field. He dueled with the Grade 1-placed shipper Toews On Ice and, after shaking off that rival, fought on to finish second by a neck to Discreetness.
A rule that nearly excluded the talented 3-year-old Tom’s Ready from the Lecomte Stakes, in which he finished second and earned qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby, could come into play again at Fair Grounds when entries are taken for the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes on Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mike Luzzi will ride Green Gratto in Monday’s Grade 3, $250,000 General George Stakes at Laurel Park, trainer and part-owner Gaston Grant said Wednesday.
Luzzi, a three-time winner of the General George, will replace Kendrick Carmouche, who has elected to stick with Majestic Affair for the seven-furlong General George. Luzzi, after a slow start to the winter meet, has won with four of his last 20 mounts.
“He’s riding good, he’s won that race a couple of times, and he knows that track,” Grant said of Luzzi.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Rudy Rodriguez entered Good Luck Gus and Royal Posse in Saturday’s $100,000 Haynesfield for New York-bred 4-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles.
Good Luck Gus, the winner of the Albany Stakes at Saratoga in August, is coming off a third-place finish behind Empire Dreams and Saratoga Snacks in the Alex M. Robb here on New Year’s Day. He won the Damon Runyon Stakes over the inner track as a 2-year-old in 2014.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There was some allure for trainer and part-owner Jimmy Iselin to ship Willet to Maryland for Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel. A win would have been her first in a graded stakes, and she could have earned enough money to surpass the $1 million mark in purse earnings.
Trainer Gerald Brooks has entered three horses for owner Vince Campanella in the $75,000 John B. Campbell Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park. On Wednesday, he said they all will start.
“Classic Giacnroll and Kobel run against each other all the time and take turns beating each other, so when you run one, you almost have to run the other,” Brooks said.
Brooks also will run Sheikinator, who in his first start for the stable Jan. 30 won a first-level Penn National allowance race by six lengths.
The Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park on Saturday has an eerily familiar ring to it. In 2015, the locally based Lady Sabelia faced a red-hot 4-year-old shipper who went off favored. Last year, that role was filled by Sam’s Sister. On Saturday, it will be Hot City Girl.
Even the weather figures to be about the same for this edition of the Fritchie. The coldest temperatures of the season are expected this weekend, just in time for Laurel’s two-day Winter Carnival.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Owners John Meairs and Kenji Morinaga have been ordered to pay their trainers five-figure sums, according to rulings released last weekend by Santa Anita stewards Grant Baker, Scott Chaney, and Kim Sawyer.
Morinaga, who owns Imperative, the runner-up in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes last Saturday, has been ordered to pay his former trainer Ricky Agarie $15,982 by Feb. 19.
Meairs has been ordered to pay trainer Jim Cassidy $29,203 and veterinarian Melinda Blue $6,465 by Feb. 21.
Financial disputes arose between the parties, stewards said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Apprentice jockey Ty Kennedy moved from California to Oklahoma last month and said on Wednesday that he is evaluating whether to continue his riding career.
Kennedy, 20, said he has fought weight issues in recent months.
“I kept getting bigger,” he said. “I grew an inch and put on some weight. I’ve come home to rest up. I’m waiting to see what will happen.”
Kennedy said he is galloping horses at Will Rogers Downs, with the hope that he can resume riding this spring at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa.
