OLDSMAR, Fla. – The trainers’ race at the 2014-15 Tampa Bay Downs meeting might go down to the final days, but there’s no question who will be the leading rider.
For the second straight year, Antonio Gallardo will top the jockeys’ standings, and the only question is whether he will win in record-setting fashion. Through Sunday, Gallardo had won 131 races, 13 shy of Daniel Centeno’s record of 144 victories set at the 2007-08 meeting. The meet ends June 30.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Judy the Beauty, the champion female sprinter of 2014, moved another step closer to her 2015 debut by working six furlongs in 1:12.70 at Churchill Downs over a “good” track on Monday.
Trainer Wesley Ward was not on hand for the drill but said his assistant for the last 25 years, Blake Heap, informed him that the work was “awesome,” and that Judy the Beauty is on target to launch her campaign in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff here May 2, Kentucky Derby Day.
Tonalist, last year’s Belmont Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, will be returning to Belmont Park from Florida this weekend, trainer Christophe Clement said Monday, though where the multiple Grade 1 stakes winner will make his return to the races is still not decided.
Tonalist, unraced since running fifth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, worked six furlongs in 1:16 on Monday at Payson Park, Clement said. It is the second straight week that Tonalist worked six furlongs in 1:16.
Indiana Grand Racecourse commences its 2015 racing season Tuesday, with a new summer date for the Indiana Derby, an attractive and stable purse structure – and one nagging issue that won’t go away.
If the land on which Indiana Grand sits had a small mountain and the day were sufficiently clear, a person could spy several competing racing venues off in the distance. The region is flush with them.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita completed its 68-day winter-spring meeting on Sunday with increases in all-sources handle and attendance but a decline in ontrack handle, track officials said.
The track published limited business data for the meeting, which began Dec. 26.
All-sources handle, including offtrack and account-wagering revenue, rose 3 percent, while ontrack handle fell 1 percent, officials said. Attendance rose 4 percent from the corresponding meeting in 2013-14.
Jockey Dennis Carr underwent surgery Sunday night after sustaining a head injury when thrown from his mount in the starting gate prior to Sunday's fifth race at Golden Gate Fields.
Carr was ejected out of the back of the gate when his mount, Sharpton, reared wildly in the gate. Carr was able to walk following the fall but complained of a headache when he was taken by the track ambulance to the track's medical center, where track physician David Seftel sent him to Highland Hospital in Oakland for a CT Scan.
Former jockey Marcia Stortz earned her first victory as a trainer Sunday at Golden Gate Fields when Blazing Mojave held off the late charge of All Magic to with a six-furlong, $12,500 maiden claimer by a head.
Stortz’s jockey career was cut short in 2013 due to knee problems, but she still gallops horses.
Blazing Mojave was only her second starter and paid $10.40. Anne Sanguinetti was the winning rider. The 5-year-old gelding was dropping from a $25,000 maiden claimer to $12,500.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Papacoolpapacool extended his winning streak to three races in Saturday’s $79,750 La Puente Stakes, a victory that will lead to a start in the $500,000 Penn Mile for 3-year-olds on turf at Penn National on May 30.
“We’re progressing toward that race,” trainer Phil D’Amato said Sunday. “I don’t see any reason not to go there. His confidence is through the roof.”
Papacoolpapacool ran a career-best performance in the La Puente Stakes at 1 1/8 miles, closing from fourth in a field of eight to win by 4 1/4 lengths as the 1-2 favorite under jockey Gary Stevens.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Queen of the Sand, who won the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Handicap on Saturday, will run next in the Grade 1, $300,000 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares May 25.
“It looks like that works because of the timing,” trainer Paddy Gallagher said.
