ARCADIA, Calif. – Path of David, who won Thursday’s $79,250 Eddie Logan Stakes on turf at Santa Anita, is being pointed for the $150,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on the main track here Feb. 6, trainer Kristin Mulhall said. The 1 1/16-mile Lewis for 3-year-olds is a prep race for the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 9.
“We wanted to see how he came out of it, and so far, he looks good,” Mulhall said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mohaymen, generally considered the top 3-year-old prospect stabled on the East Coast this winter, took his first step toward the Kentucky Derby since arriving in south Florida by working four furlongs in 49.60 seconds Thursday at Palm Meadows. Mohaymen, a son of Tapit owned by Shadwell Stable, won all three of his starts at 2, capping off his perfect season with a 1 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct. He also won the Grade 2 Nashua over the same track 24 days earlier.
The 15-day holiday meet at Turfway Park ended Thursday with Albin Jimenez atop the rider standings with 23 winners, nine more than Rodney Prescott. It’s the fourth time from the last five Turfway meets that Jimenez, a 24-year-old native of Panama, has been the top jockey.
Perennial leading trainer Mike Maker had two winners on the Thursday evening card, allowing him to claim yet another title. Maker, whose best horses currently are in Florida, wound up with seven winners, one more than Kim Hammond.
A record was quietly established last weekend at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky when Tribal Custom won a starter allowance by eight lengths. The Dec. 27 victory was the 12th of the year for Tribal Custom, giving the mare the most wins for any horse in North America in 2015.
“I feel very fortunate to have her,” said 27-year-old trainer Elliot Sullivan. “I can’t say enough good things about her. She’s been pretty flawless.”
Trainer Kieron Magee and jockey Jevian Toledo won their respective divisions at the Laurel Park meet, which concluded Thursday.
Magee, 54, won a race closing day to break a tie with Claudio Gonzalez and take the title, 24-23. Earlier in the year, he tied with Mike Trombetta as leading trainer at the Laurel summer meet with eight wins and was second to Jamie Ness at the Pimlico session.
Magee won 65 races at the Maryland Jockey Club tracks in 2015, more than any other trainer.
Maryland rider Sheldon Russell recently began therapy on his shoulder, which he injured in a Nov. 9 training accident. Russell tore his labrum in two places and fractured his shoulder.
This has been a star-crossed year for Russell, who won the riding title at the Laurel Park winter-spring meet and the 1,000th race of his career in March. He missed three months after breaking several ribs and puncturing a lung in an April spill at Pimlico. He was then back a little more than three months before hurting his shoulder.
Trainer Ramon Preciado had a career year in 2015, winning 172 races from 569 starts, a win average of 30 percent. Preciado’s horses earned more than $5.6 million.
Those figures easily bettered his previous-best 2014 season, when he won 137 races and $3.5 million in purses. Preciado repeated this year as the leading trainer at Parx Racing, where he is based.
In many professions, a year like that would be cause for celebration. But Preciado, while acknowledging he was happy with his 2015 results, is already focused on keeping his momentum going in 2016.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Wes Hawley, who over the years has adeptly managed mainly claiming stock, is at it again this season. Hawley, who won with six of his first 27 starters at the meet, is 4 for 12 since Dec. 19, with all four of those winners in claiming company.
Two of those winners – the filly Missysway and the gelding Titans Heart – were debuting as 2-year-olds, Missysway for a $30,000 price and Titans Heart for $25,000. Hawley ran the Louisiana-bred gelding K One Kobra in open $5,000 company Dec. 21, and he paid $32 for winning that six-furlong sprint.
NEW ORLEANS - Because Arlington Million winner The Pizza Man went off his feed for three days here recently, trainer Roger Brueggemann decided against sending him to Santa Anita for Saturday’s San Gabriel.
Brueggemann said Tuesday that the Pizza Man didn’t have a fever and hadn’t missed any training.
“He just wasn’t 100 percent,” Brueggemann said. “I’d rather take my time and have him 100 percent.”
OLDSMAR, Fla. – El Grande Rojo has run in only one stakes race during his 44-race career, but he sure looked like a stakes winner Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs, tying the track record for seven furlongs and scoring a seven-length victory in a second-level optional $32,000 claimer.
