OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher went into last month’s Withers Stakes with an unheralded maiden winner and came out with yet another Kentucky Derby candidate.
DRF Past Performances
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Silentio has not raced since finishing last of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint here last November. The layoff does not bother trainer Gary Mandella. It’s the competition and an expected big field for Saturday’s $400,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf that are greater concerns.
“He runs well off a long break,” Mandella said Wednesday. “The trip will be huge. It’s destined that someone will finish fifth and be beaten three-quarters of a length.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – A murky pace scenario in the Santa Anita Handicap became clear Wednesday when trainer Eric Guillot confirmed that front-runner Moreno will make his 2015 debut Saturday in the Big Cap.
Guillot considered shipping Moreno to Oaklawn Park for the Grade 3 Razorback on March 14.
“It was either go to the Razorback at a mile and a sixteenth in weather or go out there in the Big Cap, lope on the lead, and hold on for second or third,” Guillot said. “And besides Shared Belief, there are no stars in the race.”
Ocho Ocho Ocho, unbeaten in three starts at age 2, is among a bulky field entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe Stakes, an important prep at Santa Anita Park for both the Santa Anita Derby on April 4 and the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Bret Calhoun said the undefeated Promise Me Silver is scheduled to be entered in the Grade 3, $150,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn, but her status for Saturday’s race will depend on the weather. Temperatures are forecast to dip into the teens overnight Thursday and Friday, according to The Weather Channel.
Calhoun’s concern is the weather pattern. Temperatures are forecast to rise to as high as 52 degrees Saturday, leading to a freeze-thaw situation that could make for an unpredictable surface. He said he would not want a deep track for Promise Me Silver.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park will offer 29 stakes worth $4.7 million during the 2015 spring-summer session, highlighted by the seven-stakes Summit of Speed card and the Florida Sire Stakes series, which includes an inaugural program for 3-year-old Florida-breds.
The day before entries were to be taken and post positions assigned for Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes, the race lost a marquee player as the connections of Ocean Knight decided to stay in Florida and run in Saturday’s Tampa Bay Derby the same day.
The decision came Tuesday morning, just 90 minutes before Ocean Knight was to have traveled by plane from south Florida to New York along with fellow Gotham runners Lieutenant Colonel and Blame Jim.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Social Inclusion, who holds the Gulfstream track record for 1 1/16 miles, was back on the work tab for the first time this winter, going an easy three furlongs in 39 seconds last week at Palm Meadows. Social Inclusion came out of his seventh-place finish last August in the Grade 1 Haskell with a tendon injury.
“He came out of his first work terrific,” said trainer Chad Brown. “I was really happy with the way he moved down the lane. Right now, we have no real set schedule for him. It’s going to take a lot of time and patience with a horse like this.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Shug McGaughey is hoping 2015 will be the breakout year for his talented but injury-plagued Honor Code, who launches his season against Grade 1 winners Private Zone and Wicked Strong in Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.