OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Hot City Girl, the runner-up to Birdatthewire in last Saturday’s Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita, could make her next start in the $300,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel on Feb. 13, trainer Linda Rice said Wednesday. The Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie is run at seven furlongs, the same distance as the La Brea.
“Big purse, good distance,” Rice said at Belmont Park. “Point to that and then give her a break. We’ll see; not sure yet.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though entered in Friday’s $125,000 Lost in the Fog Stakes at six furlongs, Condo King is likely to scratch from that spot and attempt two turns in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.
The Jerome is the first of four races on this circuit for 3-year-olds with Kentucky Derby aspirations. The Jerome, at a mile and 70 yards, awards 17 qualifying points (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishers to the May 7 Derby.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Wonder Gal, a well-beaten third in the Grade 3 Comely on Nov. 28, likely will make her next start in the $100,000 Ladies Handicap here on Jan. 10, trainer Leah Gyarmati said Wednesday.
Wonder Gal, the winner of the Empire Distaff two starts back, finished 7 1/2 lengths behind Forever Unbridled and Carrumba, who were noses apart in the Comely.
In just six years as a trainer, Karl Broberg has made a substantial impact on racing. He led all trainers in wins in North America for the second year in a row in 2015, and for the new year, he has divisions of his stable at five different tracks in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Friday’s main event is an optional $25,000 claimer that drew a full field of 14 older fillies and mares going 7 1/2 furlongs on turf. The race has any number of logical contenders, led by Miss Tatey Cat, who has won eight races, including three of her last four. Trained by Nick Gonzalez, she’ll be joined in the starting gate by, among others, Sequoia Princess, Giant’s Jewel, Bibby, Al Khazaaliya, Sokie, Lady Zuzu, and Enthusiastic Gal.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The decision to move the six-furlong Hutcheson Stakes up on the calendar from the middle of the winter gave horsemen a second option to go with the one-mile Mucho Macho Man for their 3-year-olds here on Saturday. And as a result, the races wound up splitting the available talent, with seven in each race and the Hutcheson getting the stronger of the two fields. The Grade 3 Hutcheson attracted the stakes winners Sheikh of Sheikhs and Full Salute along with the extremely promising Awesome Banner.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Smooth Roller, who missed the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31 because of a tendon injury, will resume training in early April, trainer Victor Garcia said on Wednesday.
Smooth Roller was in training for the BC Classic when the injury was detected. Garcia said he expects Smooth Roller to return to racing in the second half of 2016.
“He’s still at the farm,” he said. “The way it looks, he could come back 100 percent.”
There are three stakes on Saturday’s program at Santa Anita, including the $200,000 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs and the $100,000 Midnight Lute Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Pretty N Cool, who won Grade 2 races at Del Mar and Belmont Park last year, and Treasuring, who was second in the Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar in November, are part of the projected field for the Santa Ynez. Pretty N Cool and Treasuring were fourth and fifth in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 12.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Gender Agenda gave trainer Carla Gaines a successful start to the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with an upset win in the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes last Sunday. Gaines is poised for another potential upset in a stakes if Texas Ryano can run to his early-autumn form in Saturday’s $200,000 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita.
Texas Ryano won the King Pellinore Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf Sept. 27 but struggled at Del Mar, finishing fifth in an optional claimer at a mile Oct. 30 and eighth of 14 in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup on Nov. 26.
At least two of the winners of the three stakes races last Saturday at Fair Grounds could be headed out of town for their next starts, and while the third horse, Fila Primera, might run back in New Orleans, her connections think she could turn out to be better than the local stakes schedule in her division.
