Honor Marie will point to next month’s Grade 3, $300,000 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park after finishing full of run in a 4 1/2-length victory in the Dust Commander Stakes at the Florence, Ky., track last Saturday night.
“That’s 100 percent the target now,” trainer Whit Beckman said Monday. “If he didn’t run well there, we were going to Virginia, but now that he ran well, we’re definitely going to run back there.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Tom Morley believes the turf stakes winner Attfield is ready to make his 3-year-old debut. Morley does not believe it wise to have Attfield make his first start off a layoff also be his first start on dirt. There are no turf races Morley sees that entice him.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Baeza, one of the nation’s leading 3-year-olds of 2025, will be transferred to a trainer based outside of California this month following the unexpected death on Thursday of trainer John Shirreffs, majority owner Lee Searing said on Friday.
Speaking at Shirreffs’s barn on the Santa Anita backstretch, Searing said he plans to consult with Robert Clay, whose Grandview Equine owns a minority share of Baeza, before finalizing a decision.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Manny Franco won six races on Thursday’s card at Aqueduct, one shy of the record set by Flavien Prat last November.
On a day when favorites won eight of the nine races, Franco rode five of those favorites and the one second choice who won on the card.
Mesquite, runner-up in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes, is off the Kentucky Derby trail with what is suspected to be a soft-tissue injury, trainer Cherie DeVaux said Thursday.
Mesquite breezed Jan. 30 at Fair Grounds but has not had a workout since. DeVaux said Mesquite will be examined by Dr. Larry Bramlage in Kentucky next week.
“He’s off the Derby trail,” DeVaux said. “It’s something we’ve been monitoring. Dr. Bramlage needs to see the horse and come up with a plan.”
Mesquite was removed from betting for this weekend's Kentucky Derby Future Wager.
The $8,600 purse of a $4,000 claiming race at Los Alamitos in September has been ordered redistributed by Santa Anita stewards after race winner Crazy About You was disqualified for a positive test, according to a ruling published by Santa Anita stewards on Feb. 7.
Crazy About You tested positive for the banned analgesic tramadol, according to the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit website.
The multiple stakes winners Queen Maxima and Splendora have had successful starts to their 2026 seasons at Santa Anita, and have local stakes as next-race goals in the coming weeks and months ahead.
Splendora won her third consecutive stakes in the Grade 2 D. Wayne Lukas Stakes for fillies and mares last Saturday in a prep race for the Grade 1 B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile for fillies and mares on March 7.
“That would be the most logical spot for her,” trainer Bob Baffert said last weekend.
Stella Thayer’s first memory of what is now Tampa Bay Downs came when she was 11 years old, going there with a friend whose father ran the track at the time when it was known as Sunshine Park.
“As minors, we could not go in, so we stood on the roof of the car and watched the races,” said Thayer, now 85.
Mark Casse has a similar first memory. As a young teenager, Casse came to the track with his father, a trainer, but also was not allowed inside.
Perfect Shot, who won the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic over a strong field last month at Sam Houston, is being discussed for a possible start in the Azeri at Oaklawn Park, trainer Steve Asmussen said last week. The Grade 2, $400,000 race is March 7.
Perfect Shot was up for a half-length win in the 1 1/16-mile Ladies Classic for Whisper Hill Farm.
“Solid mare, ran her best race to date,” Asmussen said.
Asmussen said the 5-year-old is improving with age, which tends to be the case with the offspring of her sire, Gun Runner.
Brad and Sharon Kleven will jump onto the Kentucky Derby trail Sunday with recent auction purchase Express Kid, the 3-1 morning line favorite for the $500,000 Sunland Derby at Sunland Park.
Express Kid brought $800,000 during a Fasig-Tipton digital flash sale last month and was sent to trainer Justin Evans. The horse won the $300,000 Springboard Mile and earned 10 points for the Kentucky Derby in December at Remington Park for trainer Wade Rarick. Express Kid was then moved to Turf Paradise.
