ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Patrick Husbands and Luis Contreras had quite the battle atop the Woodbine jockey standings toward the end of last season, but they might have some company this season as former New York jockey Alan Garcia joins the Woodbine colony this year.
Garcia, a winner of 1,449 career races, recently has been riding on the Kentucky circuit while also spending the summers at Saratoga. Garcia said he’s fully committed to Woodbine for the duration of the 2015 season.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – D. Wayne Lukas made an impression on a teenage Bob Baffert decades ago when Lukas shipped several horses into a Sonoita, Ariz., track about 30 miles from Baffert’s home. Lukas was an established Quarter Horse trainer and was invading for trials for a futurity.
“It was big time,” recalled Baffert. “He rolled in with all these good 2-year-olds, a first-class operation. He was the guy. Wayne’s always been bigger than life. He’s always been the bar of racing.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tamarkuz, the nose winner of the Grade 2 Godolphin Mile on Dubai World Cup Night at Meydan, will soon ship to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin’s New York barn and be pointed to the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on Belmont Stakes Day.
Tamarkuz, owned by Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stable, is a Kentucky-bred son of Speightstown. Tamarkuz’s dam, Without You Babe, is a half-sister to Stay Thirsty, who in 2011 won the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct and the Travers and Jim Dandy stakes at Saratoga.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Joint Return, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes last year, will kick off her 4-year-old campaign in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct.
A field of nine fillies and mares was entered for the Top Flight, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the dirt.
House Rules, the runner-up as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Royal Delta Stakes last out, likely will go off favored in the Top Flight.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – New York Racing Association officials have postponed two turf stakes scheduled to be run this weekend at Aqueduct until next week, it was announced Wednesday.
The $100,000 Danger’s Hour, for older horses at one mile, was originally scheduled for Wood Memorial Day but, due to poor weather, was postponed with the hopes of running it this weekend. Now, the race will be rescheduled for April 18.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – New York-bred Effinex, who came off an 86-day layoff to win an open, second-level optional-claiming race March 27 at Aqueduct, worked four furlongs in 50.20 seconds Wednesday at Belmont.
He is being pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Excelsior at 1 1/4 miles on April 25 at Aqueduct.
Effinex won last year’s Empire Classic Handicap in October at Belmont. He finished the year with fourth-place finishes in the Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup and the Alex M. Robb Stakes for New York-breds on Dec. 31.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Daredevil, beaten 12 lengths when finishing fourth as the favorite in Saturday’s Grade 1 Wood Memorial, has been sent to WinStar Farm for a freshening and will be pointed to a summer return, trainer Todd Pletcher said Wednesday.
Pletcher said Daredevil came out of the Wood sound and will be kept in races around one turn for the time being.
“We’ll focus on Saratoga; we kicked around the King’s Bishop as a target, with a race prior to that,” Pletcher said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Before he heads to Kentucky, Frosted is going to his old south Florida home.
Frosted, the winner of last Saturday’s Grade 1, $985,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, was to be flown to south Florida on Wednesday and will prepare for the May 2 Kentucky Derby at the Palm Meadows training center, where he has been based the last four months.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The champion American Pharoah arrived Wednesday at Oaklawn Park and not long afterward drew post 6 in a field of eight for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby. He was installed as the 1-2 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s race following his dominant win in last month’s Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel Stakes.
