ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Ami’s Mesa emerged as an early contender for next season’s Woodbine Oaks with a strong closing kick to capture Saturday’s $144,900 Glorious Song Stakes at Woodbine. Trainer Josie Carroll said Sunday she had no firm plans for the filly’s next start but added that Ami’s Mesa likely will continue her training in Florida after the Woodbine meet concludes this Sunday.
“She’ll be heading down to Florida,” she said. “She’s only had two races. She’ll kick on.”
MIAMI – Racing lost a dedicated owner and an even better friend this month with the sudden death of Barbara Smollin, 73.
Smollin was best known for having owned and bred three-time Grade 1 winner Sir Bear along with her husband, Dr. Al Smollin. Sir Bear began his career under a $50,000 claiming tag at Gulfstream Park during the winter of 1996 and raced for eight seasons before retiring in 2003. His biggest victories included the 1998 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, the 1999 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, and the 2001 Gulfstream Park Handicap, all Grade 1 wins.
MIAMI – Weekend Hideaway, who ran the best race of his life to capture the Sunshine Millions Sprint at Gulfstream Park last January, found Gulfstream Park West to his liking as well, snapping a seven-race losing streak with a convincing 6 1/4-length victory in Sunday’s featured race, which was moved from the turf to a sloppy main track due to heavy rain.
Trainer Phil Serpe handicapped both the weather and his horse quite well, entering Weekend Hideaway for the main track only in the five-furlong dash with rain in the forecast over the weekend.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A full field is expected for the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for older females at one mile on turf, which is the biggest of two stakes Sunday, closing day of the meeting.
Trainer Chad Brown is sending Olorda for the race, while Bill Mott has Filimbi, Jimmy Toner ships Recepta, and Christophe Clement is bringing both Hard Not to Like and Stellar Path.
DEL MAR, Calif. – If there is safety in numbers, trainer Chad Brown is trying to make himself awfully safe in the Hollywood Derby.
On Monday, Brown sent four runners – Fundamental, March, Money Multiplier, and Offering Plan – to Del Mar for the Grade 1, $300,000 Hollywood Derby, the featured race here Saturday.
The Hollywood Derby is expected to be topped by Om, who won the Del Mar Derby during the summer at the same 1 1/8-mile distance, then followed up with a victory Oct. 24 in the Twilight Derby at Santa Anita.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dale Romans can’t remember a Thanksgiving without the racetrack. Even as a young boy growing up in Louisville, he would come to Churchill Downs from his nearby home with his father, trainer Jerry Romans.
That’s the main reason taking part in the traditional Thanksgiving feature, the Falls City Handicap, is so meaningful to Romans, who won the race in 2004 with Halory Leigh and 2012 with Afleeting Lady.
“It’s a special time with the family and all,” said Romans.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dortmund and Effinex were among the standouts expected in the entry box Tuesday at Churchill Downs, whose 21-day fall meet will hit its apex Friday with the 142nd running of the Grade 1 Clark Handicap.
Dortmund, the “other” top 3-year-old in the Bob Baffert barn this year, was scheduled to arrive here Tuesday from California with stablemate Hoppertunity in advance of the $500,000 Clark, a 1 1/8-mile race in which the colt is among the highweights.
A few weeks ago, Acceptance was being prepared for morning exercise when trainer and exercise rider Kenny Black stepped back and took a long look at the colt.
“I went to get on him, and I stopped,” Black recalled last weekend. “I could see how much this colt has grown. It’s like your children. You don’t notice it when you see them all the time, but when you’re away for a couple of days, you notice it.”
Thanksgiving weekend is the biggest weekend of the Golden Gate Fields fall meet. On Saturday, Code Warrior will try to complete a sweep of the meeting’s 2-year-old sprint stakes in the $50,000-added Golden Gate Debutante. On Sunday, G. G. Ryder will try to complete a sweep of Golden Gate’s three graded stakes for older runners in the Grade 3, $100,000 Berkeley Handicap.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Nyquist, the undefeated winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Oct. 31 and a top contender for the 2016 Triple Crown, will resume light training in coming days, said trainer Doug O’Neill.
Nyquist has been based at O’Neill’s Santa Anita stable in recent weeks and has been hand-walked up to three times a day. On Sunday, O’Neill said Nyquist will be tack-walked at the barn this week and may not be far from a return to racetrack training.
