CYPRESS, Calif. – Unforgettable U will be pointed to stakes at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting after winning an optional claimer Thursday at Los Alamitos. The victory was the second in her last four starts.
Unforgettable U dueled on the lead with Windy Forecast for the opening quarter-mile before taking a commanding lead. She drew away from five rivals in the long stretch to win by 9 1/2 lengths, running six furlongs in 1:08.67.
Songbird, the undefeated winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Oct. 31, returned to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s stable at Santa Anita on Thursday after a month-long break at a Kentucky farm.
On Friday, Hollendorfer said Songbird will be pointed to stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita winter-spring meet, and that he is not planning to start her against males.
“We’re not going to run in the Kentucky Derby,” he said.
Trainer Todd Pletcher is getting ready to head to south Florida for the winter, but he will have plenty of horses to run in upcoming New York stakes.
Tommy Macho, 4 1/4-length winner of the Grade 3 Discovery here on Nov. 11, will make his next start in the $100,000 Queens County Stakes here on Dec. 19.
“Two turns and the timing, I thought, was good to possibly set him up for the Donn,” Pletcher said, referring to the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 6. “He seems to like a little bit of space between races.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – David Jacobson is going bi-coastal.
Already a force in New York, Jacobson plans to open a Southern California division when he sends about 20 horses to Santa Anita for the winter meet. Among the horses he will be sending is Salutos Amigos, a multiple-graded-stakes-winning sprinter who is targeting the Grade 3 Midnight Lute Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 2.
Jacobson will still maintain a 50-horse string in New York and will have 10 horses at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For horseplayers, winter in south Florida officially begins Saturday with the opening of the 2015-16 Gulfstream Park championship meet. The 90-day session runs through April 3.
Buoyed by the success of the recently concluded Gulfstream Park West meet, held eight miles west at the former Calder Race Course, as well as a horse population full to overflowing throughout the area and a record stakes schedule anchored by the $1 million Florida Derby, track officials are expecting another banner season. The weather, as always, will be key to the bottom line.
CYPRESS, Calif. – A California policy prohibiting inexperienced apprentice jockeys from riding 2-year-olds will prevent Rosie Higgins from riding in what would have been her first race on Saturday. The wife of Hall of Fame rider Kent Desormeaux, Higgins was named on the 2-year-old Sunny Truce in Saturday’s ninth race at Los Alamitos, but will not be allowed to ride because of a policy that requires apprentice jockeys to have five wins before they can ride a 2-year-old or a first-time starter, according to steward Luis Jauregui.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Sorryaboutnothing has yet to cross the wire in first place in two starts, but the promising colt will represent trainer Doug O’Neill in the $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19.
Sorryaboutnothing finished second in a maiden race at 1 1/16 miles Nov. 15 at Del Mar, but was promoted to first after race winner Urlacher was disqualified for causing interference in the stretch. O’Neill said he saw enough from the performance to run Sorryfornothing in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles.
Runhappy, who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31, was scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon, Dec. 3, at Santa Anita for a scheduled start in the $300,000 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds Dec. 26, said owner Jim McIngvale.
Runhappy is likely to be favored in the Grade 1 Malibu at seven furlongs, a fixture on opening day of the track’s winter-spring meeting.
“He’s happy, fit, and on the muscle,” McIngvale said in a phone interview from Houston.
Monty Hanna, who has delivered the Daily Racing Form to Golden Gate Fields and other Northern California locations for several decades, will be honored Saturday at Golden Gate with a race named in his honor. Hanna is returning to work after recovering from a long illness.
Track spokesman Sam Spear said the race was being named for Hanna as a way to welcome him back.
Smack Smack has developed into one of the top older horses in the Southwest over the second half of the year. He won last week’s $150,000 Zia Park Distance Championship and then was sent to Oaklawn Park.
“He’s sitting here in Hot Springs, waiting on the stakes here,” said trainer Don Von Hemel.
Von Hemel said the horse is a candidate for the $100,000 Fifth Season on Jan. 16.
