My Fiona, the champion 2-year-old California-bred filly of 2014, is nearing a return to training after undergoing surgery to have a bone chip removed from an ankle.
My Fiona was sidelined after winning the Soviet Problem Stakes for 2-year-olds at Los Alamitos in December. Trainer Walther Solis said this week that My Fiona will return to training in March, with the goal of a comeback in the summer.
“We thought this was the best time to do it,” Solis said.
Shared Belief will have three workouts at Golden Gate Fields in the coming weeks before returning to Santa Anita for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Friday that Shared Belief emerged from his win in the $590,000 San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 7 in good order and will have a workout at Golden Gate Fields on Wednesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Holy Lute will have his first start in a Grade 1 race in more than a year in the $400,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf at Santa Anita on March 7, a decision reached after the 5-year-old won an optional claimer Thursday.
Holy Lute, trained by Jim Cassidy for Class Racing Stable, won for the first time since August 2013 in the second-level optional $62,500 claimer on the hillside turf course, leading throughout as the 4-5 favorite. He was challenged in early stretch by U S Citizen but drew away under jockey Mike Smith.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In his 35 years training horses, Gary Sciacca has won 853 races, including four Grade 1 stakes, and campaigned a divisional champion. But the victory by Saratoga Snacks in Thursday’s $69,000 New York-bred allowance feature at Aqueduct rivals any of those feats.
“I never had the feeling I had yesterday,” Sciacca said Friday morning. “It’s something totally different. Great story.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Palace Malice, the winner of the 2013 Belmont Stakes and the 2014 Metropolitan Handicap, was scheduled to arrive Friday at Todd Pletcher’s barn at the Palm Beach Downs training center following an overnight van ride from South Carolina.
Palace Malice will be pointed to the one-mile Westchester Stakes on May 2 at Belmont Park, according to a Thursday release from Dogwood Stable, which sold a partial interest in the horse last year to Three Chimneys Farm, where Palace Malice will stand at stud after retiring.
The 3-year-old filly Mizz Money, who led all the way to defeat the favored Divine Dawn by three-quarters of a length in a turf allowance at about 7 1/2 furlongs last Sunday at Fair Grounds, likely will run next in the Allen LaCombe Memorial on March 7, trainer Bernie Flint said.
Mizz Money, who has won two of four starts, is 2 for 2 at the meet. She defeated maidens at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf by 2 1/2 lengths Jan. 19 in her return from a six-month layoff.
“We gave her plenty of time to grow up,” Flint said. “I thought she’d make a good 3-year-old.”
Hard Aces, a 5-year-old who became a stakes winner in a four-length romp in the Louisiana Handicap on Jan. 17, is being sold by Dreamchaser Thoroughbreds and will be sent to the California barn of trainer John Sadler, Larry Jones said Friday. He trained and was a co-owner of Hard Aces, who has won five of 19 starts and earned $215,145.
Jones, who had been preparing Hard Aces for the Mineshaft, said that with the horse set to leave the barn, Albano, who was training toward the Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam Houston, might run instead in the Mineshaft.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Since 1968, the famed eton blue and brown silks of the Whitney family have been carried just once in the Kentucky Derby, when Birdstone ran eighth in 2004. Gorgeous Bird could revive a century-old tradition by running in the 141st Derby, but a couple of major tests await the gray colt, the first being the Fountain of Youth Stakes next Saturday, Feb. 21, at Gulfstream Park.
“This is all about the horse and the owner,” said trainer Ian Wilkes.
NEW ORLEANS – The Risen Star Stakes has taken a couple of body blows, the latest being the news this week that Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red won’t be coming from California because of a foot abscess.
Texas Red, who began his 2015 season with a runner-up finish in the seven-furlong San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita, was being pointed to the Feb. 21 Risen Star at Fair Grounds by trainer Keith Desormeaux. Instead, he has sent the colt to a California farm for treatment, recovery, and swimming.
