ARCADIA, Calif. – Keri Belle, who won her first stakes in Monday’s Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes at Santa Anita, is likely to run in the $200,000 Buena Vista Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf Feb. 20.
“That would be the most logical spot,” trainer John Shirreffs said on Thursday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The multiple stakes winner Gabriel Charles is in light training with Jeff Mullins after undergoing surgery for colic in August.
Co-owner Michael House and Mullins said Gabriel Charles has recovered from the operation, but a return to racing will take time.
“In about two months, he should start breezing,” House said.
Gabriel Charles won the Grade 1 Eddie Read Sakes at Del Mar in July and was rushed to a San Diego-area veterinary clinic Aug. 8 to undergo emergency surgery for colic. He remained at the clinic for nearly a month.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, has resumed training with John Sadler at Santa Anita for a 2016 campaign designed to begin in the spring and include the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
Owned by Kosta and Pete Hronis, Stellar Wind has won 5 of 8 starts and earned $913,200. She was acquired privately in early 2015 and won four stakes through the season, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks. Stellar Wind finished second, a neck behind Stopchargingmaria, in the BC Distaff at Keeneland on Oct. 30.
AUBURN, Wash. – Emerald Downs unveiled its 2016 stakes schedule this week, a slate of 28 added-money events worth $1.62 million in purses and headlined by the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile on Aug. 14.
The Emerald Downs stakes program includes five races for older horses, five for fillies and mares, five for 3-year-olds, five for 3-year-old fillies, and seven for 2-year-olds, in addition to the $55,000 Bank of America Emerald Downs Championship Challenge for Quarter Horses.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Ishaq, the undefeated winner of the $67,500 Inaugural Stakes last month at Tampa Bay Downs, will need surgery to remove a small chip from his knee and will miss about four months of training, according to trainer Efren Loza Jr.
A disappointed Charlie Smith drove back to northwest Louisiana last weekend but left the star of his two-horse stable, String King, at Fair Grounds with trainer Kenny Hargrave. String King finished fifth last weekend in the Grade 3 Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap, a race he won in 2015, and Smith felt String King never had a chance in the race.
Two of trainer Steve Asmussen’s top 3-year-olds, the filly Nickname and the colt Gun Runner, are approaching their first races of the year.
On Wednesday morning at Fair Grounds, Nickname worked five furlongs in company with Wrath of Ruthie in 1:00.80. Nickname will make her 2016 debut Feb. 5 at Oaklawn Park in the Martha Washington Stakes.
“She worked beautifully this morning,” Asmussen said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The rematch is on.
Discreetness and Gordy Florida, who finished a neck apart in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park, are both being pointed for next month’s Southwest Stakes, according to their trainers. The Grade 3, $500,000 race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles is Feb. 15.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunday Rules, the winner of the Kalookan Queen Stakes on Dec. 30, will miss Saturday’s $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita after a bout with a bacterial infection this week, trainer Phil D’Amato said on Wednesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Rafael Bejarano will miss three days of racing at Santa Anita this week to ride in Saudi Arabia on Friday and Saturday.
Bejarano is second in the Santa Anita rider standings behind Santiago Gonzalez. Through Monday, Gonzalez had 19 wins, three more than Bejarano. Bejarano has won the riding title at the last three Santa Anita winter-spring meetings.
This weekend, Bejarano is booked to ride in the King’s Cup, the biggest race of the year in Saudi Arabia, according to his agent, Tora Yamaguchi.
