NEW ORLEANS – Fair Grounds is the hometown track for trainer Eddie Johnston, and every season he focuses on having his horses ready to perform their best here.
His results at this meet, as usual, are demonstrating the point. Entering Friday’s racing, Johnston had won 12 of 54 races (a 22 percent win rate), and he was tied for ninth in the trainers’ standings.
Churchill Downs released its 2015 spring stakes schedule Friday with something of a bombshell for racing traditionalists: the Derby Trial is no longer.
Run in recent years as the opening-night feature of the spring meet, the Derby Trial has been renamed the Pat Day Mile and moved to the Kentucky Derby undercard. The $200,000 race will maintain its Grade 3 status.
In place of the Derby Trial on opening night, April 25, Churchill is using a new $100,000 sprint for 3-year-olds named the William Walker, honoring the jockey of the 1877 Derby winner, Baden-Baden.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is expected to send out his first Maryland starters since the 2002 Preakness next weekend.
Hollendorfer plans to send in Sam’s Sister for the Grade 2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap next Saturday. He also has Outside Nashville for the Grade 3, $250,000 General George on Presidents Day, Monday, Feb. 16.
The Fritchie, for fillies and mares, and the General George, for both sexes, will be run at seven furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the next huge day of racing at Gulfstream set for Feb. 21, the only stakes here next weekend is the Grade 3, $150,000 Hurricane Bertie on Saturday.
Among the 20 fillies and mares nominated to the 6 1/2-furlong Hurricane Bertie are Dame Dorothy, Merry Meadow, Wedding Toast, Classic Point, and R Free Roll.
Feb. 21 is a date to circle on your calendar. The Gulfstream program will be anchored by a major Kentucky Derby prep, the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, and will include seven other stakes, six of them graded.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dave Kassen was as surprised as everyone else when Celebrity Star rolled home a six-length winner at 28-1 in a first-level allowance race Thursday at Gulfstream Park.
“I entered her for never-won-two for $12,500 and $20,000, but none of her races would go,” said Kassen, who trains Celebrity Star for Mike Raymaley, Denise Bujold, and Five Keys Stables. “I went in this race because there was nothing else for her.”
Ivan Fallunovalot, who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 108 for an allowance win at Oaklawn Park, drew the rail for the track’s $100,000 King Cotton on Saturday. The six-furlong race for 4-year-olds and up will go with eight, including the multiple stakes winners Alsvid, Apprehender, and Brewing.
Ivan Fallunovalot led throughout to win a Jan. 22 allowance at Oaklawn in his first start since September. He covered six furlongs in 1:09.74. Calvin Borel was aboard and has the mount again for trainer Tom Howard.
Sunbean and Heitai, who rank among the top Louisiana-breds in training, both drew rail posts for their respective stakes engagements on Saturday night’s $1 million Louisiana Premier Night program at Delta Downs. The card features six stakes, all divisional races restricted to horses bred in Louisiana.
Heitai goes first in the second race, the $100,000 Sprint. Gerard Melancon has the mount from the fence in the five-furlong race for 4-year-olds and up. The field of six also includes Skip the Pinot and Louisiana Glory.
War Story, the runner-up in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes, likely will make his next start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, co-owner Ron Paolucci said Wednesday.
“We’re 90 percent sure he’ll run in that spot,” said Paolucci, who races the horse with Christopher Dunn.
The Southwest is on Monday, Feb. 16, and the timing of the race works well for War Story, said Paolucci. The other option is to await the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star at the horse’s base of Fair Grounds on Feb. 21.
The New York-bred West Hills Giant has been nominated to several stakes on this circuit but is likely to make his next start Feb. 16 in the Grade 3, $250,000 General George Handicap at Laurel Park.
Trainer John Terranova said he prefers the seven-furlong distance of the General George to options at six furlongs or two-turn races at a mile and 1 1/16 miles available to him in New York.
Trying to return him to the form that made him a Grade 1 winner last April, trainer Rudy Rodriguez will equip Dads Caps with blinkers when the 5-year-old takes on Salutos Amigos and four others in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.
