Last year’s Santa Anita winter meeting saw American Pharoah train toward his Triple Crown run, Dortmund emerge as the leading 3-year-old who actually raced at the meet, Shared Belief beat California Chrome in the San Antonio, and jockey Gary Stevens win his 5,000th race in North America, then turn 52.
This year’s meet might unfold a bit differently:
Santiago Gonzalez walked off an airplane after a flight from Miami in December 2014, brand new to Southern California.
The jockey had been successful in his native Venezuela and had won 41 races at Gulfstream Park West and Gulfstream Park in 2014 but needed a change. California, he hoped, was the answer.
“It was a dream to come here to ride,” he said last week.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockeys Luis Saez, Tyler Gaffalione, and Julien Leparoux have all been red-hot of late.
Saez rode four winners on Friday and came back with a double Sunday with Ever Arch and Still Krz. Gaffalione, who posted a four-bagger of his own last Wednesday, made back-to-back visits to the winner’s circle Sunday with Bridle Fashion ($30.20) and Cape Caroline ($13.40). Leparoux won five races from Friday through Sunday, including Saturday’s Tropical Park Derby aboard Solemn Tribute.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Lady Eli, who contracted laminitis after winning the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 4 at Belmont Park, has been jogging on a regular basis for nearly a week at the Palm Meadows training center. Trained by Chad Brown, Lady Eli has won all six of her starts and is among the candidates for an Eclipse Award as top female turf horse in 2015.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Doug O’Neill said Monday that undefeated Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Nyquist might wind up preparing for the Kentucky Derby in south Florida this winter.
Based at Santa Anita, O’Neill said he is considering bringing horses to Florida because the El Niño climate phenomenon is expected to bring unseasonable amounts of rain to California this winter. O’Neill has contacted officials at Gulfstream Park about securing stall space for Nyquist and perhaps several other members of his stable.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Kathleen O’Connell’s barn pulled off a 20-1 shocker here Sunday, when the venerable veteran Dannhauser outfought 6-5 favorite War Envoy to win by a head in a second-level optional $32,000 claimer on turf.
War Envoy had placed in three stakes at the Group 2 or Group 3 level last year in Europe for trainer Aidan O’Brien and won the Britannia Stakes at Ascot in June. He most recently was last in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland, his first start for trainer Wesley Ward.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher unveiled a potential leading contender for the Grade 3 Florida Oaks in the Irish-bred Spinamiss, who won a first-level optional $75,000 claimer by a neck over a game Saturn Lace at Tampa Bay Downs on Sunday.
Pinnacle Peak, a game front-running winner of a 2-year-old first-level dirt-route allowance Friday night at Fair Grounds, is a likely runner in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 16, trainer Mike Stidham said. Stidham could have two horses in the Lecomte, with Noble Thought, a good-looking dirt-route maiden winner here on Dec. 4, also pointed toward the Lecomte.
NEW ORLEANS – The best-looking winners of Saturday stakes races at Fair Grounds all appeared to be in good shape Sunday morning, with attention now turning to where these horses will next start.
That’s particularly the case with Eagle, who won his third straight race with an impressive victory in the Tenacious Stakes. Eagle ran the fastest mile-and-70-yard time here at Fair Grounds, 1:41.63, in almost five years, and did so under a hand ride from Brian Hernandez Jr. He earned a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Things are getting serious surrounding California Chrome’s comeback.
On Saturday morning at Los Alamitos, California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, worked six furlongs in 1:13.80, his longest workout since a return to training in mid-October. He is three weeks away from a scheduled start in the $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Jan. 9.
