The inner-track season comes to an end with a rare non-stakes Saturday card at Aqueduct. Wednesday racing returns to the New York calendar next week when the main track opens.
This was supposed to be a dark week in New York when 2015 race dates were originally allocated. The March 26-28 cards were added to make up for some of the winter cancellations.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Shared Belief, winner of two major stakes for older horses this year at Santa Anita, will make his next start in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic in West Virginia on April 18.
Alex Solis II, a member of the partnership that owns the 4-year-old gelding, said on Wednesday evening that a decision was finalized on Shared Belief’s next start earlier in the day.
The Charles Town Classic and the $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas on April 11 had been considered as options for Shared Belief's next start by the partnership and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
Oaklawn Park will raise purses between $1,000 and $2,000 per race for the final 10 dates of the meet, the track announced Wednesday. The increase will go into effect Saturday. It is the third purse increase of the meet, and it will make for allowances as high as $72,000 in value and maiden special weights worth a record $66,000. The bottom-level purse will be $21,000.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 1-placed 3-year-old The Truth Or Else breezed five furlongs in company in 1:00.40 on Wednesday at Oaklawn. He worked in blinkers with the intent of adding them for the Arkansas Derby, said trainer Ken McPeek. Jockey Calvin Borel was aboard for the move, which came first after the renovation break.
The Truth Or Else was the runner-up in the Grade 3 Southwest at Oaklawn in February, and in his last start, he was fourth to American Pharoah in the local Rebel on March 14.
Trainer Kelly Breen has contenders in both of the undercard dirt stakes for older males on Saturday’s program at Gulfstream Park.
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Riposte and Tabreed, separated by a neck when second and third behind Irish Mission in the Grade 3 The Very One, top the field for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Orchid Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Gulfstream Park.
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Riposte, a multiple Grade 2 winner last year, was making her first start in eight months in The Very One.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita will conduct video surveillance for 72 hours before the race for all runners in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby and $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks on April 4, the track announced in a brief statement on Wednesday.
This will be the third consecutive year of surveillance in advance of those races. Surveillance will begin on Wednesday, April 1, the day entries are taken for both Grade 1 races.
Raceday surveillance is commonplace for approximately six hours in advance of major stakes here.
Twilight Eclipse did not follow Main Sequence to Dubai for Saturday’s Sheema Classic, so his path to the winner’s circle became that much easier for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Pan American Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Gulfstream Park.
Twilight Eclipse has lost seven straight races since winning the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida here in February 2014. In his last five races, Twilight Eclipse has been defeated by Main Sequence by a combined four lengths.
Coffee Clique, not seen since winning the Grade 1 Just a Game at Belmont Park last June, makes her return to the races in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Honey Fox Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Brian Lynch said Coffee Clique was experiencing bone remodeling last summer and was given the remainder of the year off. Had she required surgery, Lynch said, Coffee Clique would have been retired.
Jockey Drayden Van Dyke will ride Include Betty in the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park on April 4, according to his agent, Sarah Wolfe.
Trained by Tom Proctor, Include Betty won the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 31 and was fifth in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at that track March 7.
