HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Chad Brown’s arsenal of turf stars will increase by one with the arrival of Chilean champion Il Campione, who soon will join his barn after being purchased privately by a Lane’s End partnership.
Il Campione, a son of Scat Daddy, has won 8 of 10 starts, including four Group 1 races in his native Chile. His graded victories came on grass at distances ranging from 1 1/8 miles to 1 1/2 miles.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita has made minor revisions to the stakes schedule for its spring-summer meeting, which runs from April 25 to June 28, raising the purses of four stakes, reducing the purses of four stakes, and moving the Grade 1 Vanity Stakes from mid-June to early May.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said that Daredevil, who won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes last year, will make his 3-year-old debut next Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Swale Stakes going seven furlongs.
Daredevil raced three times last year. After winning his debut against maidens and then capturing the Champagne, he was caught up in a hot pace duel while wide in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita and finished last of 11. That was his only start going two turns.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Khozan, the half-brother to champion Royal Delta, was so impressive in his debut win last month that he landed a spot in the top 20 on Derby Watch. He makes start No. 2 on Sunday at Gulfstream Park in a first-level allowance, a one-turn mile that goes as race 5.
Khozan, a son of Distorted Humor, earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 103 in the seven-furlong maiden win, in which he reported home 3 3/4 lengths best in a field of 14. He faces just five rivals Sunday and landed post 3.
Apprentice Nik Juarez, who has not ridden since being injured in a Sept. 28 spill at Monmouth Park, has begun exercising horses in Maryland and plans to begin his comeback April 2, opening day of the Pimlico meet.
“I’ve been getting on horses in the morning for Hugh McMahon,” Juarez said. “Right now, I’m just focusing on getting back into shape.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Betting at California tracks rose by 3.4 percent in January compared with the same month last year, executive director Rick Baedeker said at Wednesday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting.
Baedeker said that handle on daytime Thoroughbred programs at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita rose by 1 percent in January. Business at nighttime meetings of Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds at Los Alamitos and harness racing at Cal-Expo rose 27.8 percent.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 5-year-old gelding Weewinnin will make his seventh start Saturday in the $100,000 Sensational Star Stakes for California-breds at Santa Anita.
Twice in his career, Weewinnin has scored an upset in a California-bred stakes. He was the 60-1 winner of the King Glorious Stakes at Hollywood Park in December 2012 and a 21-1 winner of the California Cup Turf Classic at Santa Anita in January 2014.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sr. Quisqueyano did not look like a $62,500 claimer when trainer Peter Walder claimed him at Gulfstream Park in December.
“He had won more than $500,000, and you don’t get that by accident,” Walder recalled Wednesday. “He’s not your average $60,000 horse.”
Sr. Quisqueyano gave Loooch Racing Stable a fast dividend with a win in the $250,000 Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 17. The next goal is to make the 5-year-old a millionaire with an upset win in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The ownership team of brothers Bob and Lee Ackerley of Houston started making some serious noise in racing decades ago, with horses like Jersey Girl, winner of the Acorn, Mother Goose, and Test in 1998. Their best also includes graded stakes winners Valid Expectations, Little Sister, and Snuck In.
Promise Me Silver, who remained undefeated in six starts with her win in last Saturday night’s Two Altazano division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park, has a handful of options for her next start, including the Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park, trainer Bret Calhoun said Tuesday.
