OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Big World, who won the Grade 3 Tempted Stakes here Wednesday, will get the remainder of the year off and point to a 3-year-old campaign, trainer Tony Dutrow said Friday.
“She’s run four times; that’s enough,” Dutrow said.
Dutrow said Big World will get 45 days in Ocala, Fla., without a saddle on her back and then go back into training in Ocala for another 30 to 45 days before joining his stable at Oaklawn Park.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Annual Report, the winner of the Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont going six furlongs, will stretch out in distance in the Grade 2, $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.
Annual Report, a son of Harlan’s Holiday, worked four furlongs in 49.79 seconds, with a final quarter of 24.10, over the Belmont Park main track on Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When jockey Aaron Gryder came to the East Coast at the beginning of the fall, it wasn’t with the intent of returning to ride on the New York Racing Association circuit, where he won four meet titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Gryder’s main purpose was to ride at Parx, where a few California-based owners had sent horses for the super-inflated purses Parx was offering during its fall meet. On dark days, however, Gryder would drive to New York, talk with some trainers, and get on a few horses in the morning.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Iggy Puglisi was expected to be back in action Sunday after being injured in a starting-gate accident Thursday. Following the incident, he went to the hospital for X-rays of an ankle.
“The foot’s not broken, but it’s pretty sore,” agent Bill Sadoo said Friday.
Sadoo said Puglisi would not ride Friday and had no mounts scheduled for Saturday, but he was expected to be ready for Sunday, when he is scheduled to ride West Mid in the second race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Owners Dean and Patti Reeves and trainer Kathy Ritvo have teamed up for a private purchase of the 2-year-old colt Mac Daddy Mac, who won his debut Oct. 24 at Santa Anita and is being prepared for the Grade 3, $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 14, said Ritvo.
“He’s a nice horse,” she said. “He broke his maiden impressively.”
Ritvo will remain in California through the Bob Hope.
DEL MAR, Calif. – On Sunday, trainer Richard Baltas will send out Del Mar specialist Kiss At Midnight and veteran mare Wild in the Saddle in hopes of claiming the featured $100,000 Betty Grable Stakes, a seven-furlong race for older California-bred females.
Kiss At Midnight has won both of her starts at Del Mar, including one via disqualification. She has crossed the wire first or second in her last four starts going 6 1/2 or seven furlongs.
“I think she’ll love seven-eighths,” said Baltas. “That’s her distance. She’ll make one run.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Gimme Da Lute, a 3-year-old multiple stakes winner trained by Bob Baffert, was euthanized this week after he fractured a hind leg coming out of surgery, Baffert said Friday.
Gimme Da Lute worked a half-mile in 46.40 seconds Tuesday at Santa Anita, the best time of 35 works at the distance. Afterward, Baffert said he was “off” back at the barn, and X-rays showed a condylar fracture in a hind leg.
The $350,000 De Francis Memorial Dash is the headliner on a card that will include six stakes next Saturday at Laurel Park. Stakes purses for the day will total $850,000.
The De Francis Dash field was still in flux on Friday, according to Coley Blind, stakes coordinator for the Maryland Jockey Club. He said a number of his best nominees had just raced in the Breeders’ Cup on Oct. 31.
“It depends how quickly those horses recover from their races,” he said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Frivolous has run so well over the main track at Churchill Downs that her connections are seriously considering a run against the boys in the 142nd Clark Handicap as a swan song for the 5-year-old mare.
“Unless the race comes up super-tough, we’re thinking sure, why not take a shot?” said trainer Vicki Oliver. “A lot of the top horses have already retired, and we should get a weight break, too. This will be her last race, so we’d love to send her out in a big way.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Greenpointcrusader, the Grade 1 Champagne winner, came out of his seventh-place finish as the 7-2 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with an ulcer in his left eye, according to trainer Dominick Schettino.
The ulcer, likely the result of getting hit in the eye with dirt during the race, was treated with antibiotics and is healing. Greenpointcrusader, who is back at Belmont, is simply walking each morning. He will not run again this year.
Schettino said he didn’t know when Greenpointcrusader got hit in the Juvenile.
