Missing Sefa, who will turn 14 on Jan. 1, will be pointed to another race in the starter-allowance ranks after beating just one opponent and finishing 20 lengths behind the winner last Sunday at Turfway.
Owner-trainer Jamie Grubbs said this week that Missing Sefa, a winner of 28 races from 112 career starts, “came out of her race great.”
“She loves her job and wants to keep doing it,” Grubbs said. “As long as she’s sound and happy, we’ll be looking for a race.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Leave the Light On won the Grade 2 Remsen in 2014, and he will make his first start since in a second-level optional-claiming race Saturday at Aqueduct.
The race is at a mile and 70 yards and is limited to 10 starters, though 11 were entered. Leave the Light On drew the rail.
Trainer Chad Brown said Leave the Light On initially was off due to an injury for which he “needed extended recovery time.”
The horse then suffered a few setbacks while trying to make it back earlier this year. He shows 11 workouts beginning Sept. 22 through Dec. 5.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockeys who ride at New York Racing Association tracks will be limited to whipping their horses three times in succession under a new rule that will go into effect Jan. 1.
Currently, riders may hit a horse up to five times in succession with the whip before waiting a stride or two then going back to the whip.
The stewards met with riders before the races Wednesday to inform them of the new regulation, which is a house rule and not a state rule. The new rule is similar to what was implemented at Southern California tracks in July.
The Eleanor Casey Memorial at Charles Town on Saturday night honors the family matriarch, who with her husband, James W. Casey, founded nearby Taylor Mountain Farm. Eleanor Casey died in 2005 after being injured during a training-hours accident at Charles Town.
The $50,000 Casey Memorial, a seven-furlong race for West Virginia-bred 2-year-old fillies, has drawn a full field of 10, plus two also-eligibles. The Casey family will be well represented as John Casey, Eleanor’s son, has four horses in the body of the race, and James W. Casey also has a runner.
Gelo Hall, who spent almost his entire life in one capacity or another at the racetracks of Maryland, died Thursday morning at age 88. He had recently suffered a stroke, according to his daughter, Janis Hall.
Hall, whose full name was Howard Gordon Hall Jr., was introduced to racing by his father, a valet in the jockeys’ rooms in Maryland. He was in attendance at Pimlico for the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race of 1938 and would go on to work as an exercise rider, trainer, jockey agent, and racing official.
Stakes winners Cash Bonus, Suddenbreakingnews, and Uncle Brennie will meet maiden special weight winners from Kentucky and Southern California on Sunday in the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park. The race for 2-year-olds anchors a card of five stakes on the closing-day program at the Oklahoma City track.
The $100,000 Trapeze for 2-year-old fillies at a mile drew shippers from trainers Wayne Catalano, Larry Jones, and Ken McPeek.
There were a couple of surprise entrants when Saturday’s $100,000 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes was drawn on Wednesday at Gulfstream Park, Mr. Jordan and Juan and Bina. They were originally going to run in last Sunday’s one-mile Aventura Stakes for 3-year-olds, but that race was not used, in part, because of the forecast for inclement weather.
The 3-year-old Chiropractor, the upset winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar on Nov. 29, is expected to make his next start in the $200,000 San Gabriel Stakes against older horses at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Jan. 2.
Craig Bernick, whose family’s Glen Hill Farm owns Chiropractor, said the distance of the Grade 2 San Gabriel has greater appeal than the one mile of the $200,000 Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Runhappy worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 at Santa Anita on Tuesday, preparing for his first start in the state in the $300,000 Malibu Stakes on Dec. 26.
The Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs is part of the opening day of the track’s winter-spring meeting.
Runhappy arrived at Santa Anita earlier this month. Tuesday’s workout was Runhappy’s third since the BC Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Anybody in south Florida unfamiliar with the name Dane Kobiskie quickly became acquainted with the former rider after he saddled three winners and also sent out two 2-year-olds to finish second in stakes races on the Nov. 28 card at Gulfstream Park West.
