Vyjack, the multiple graded stakes-winning gelding, has had two workouts at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland and could return to the races in March or April, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez mentioned the $100,000 Stymie on March 22 as a possible spot.
“He’s working very good at Fair Hill. We’re going to try and point him to the Stymie,” Rodriguez said. “He’s working very good. They showed me everything that he’s done over there.”
Though he hasn’t completely closed the door on shipping his top sprinter, Salutos Amigos, to Dubai for the $2 million Golden Shaheen, trainer David Jacobson said Wednesday that he is leaning toward staying home and pointing to one or two graded stakes at Aqueduct.
Jacobson said Dubai is “still in the discussion phase; it’s all about the horse – if we feel he’s up to the task or not. But we just feel so much more comfortable playing on our home field.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Under less-than-ideal circumstances, Kid Cruz will make his return to the races in Sunday’s $100,000 Evening Attire Stakes at Aqueduct, trainer Linda Rice said Wednesday.
Kid Cruz, who won four stakes as a 3-year-old in 2014, has not raced since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23. He emerged from that race with a chip in a knee and underwent surgery.
Look for first-time starter Japan to take a significant amount of action in Saturday’s third race at Gulfstream Park, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race for 3-year-olds that has lured a number of well-bred newcomers from top barns. Japan, a colt by Medaglia d’Oro, has trained strongly at Palm Meadows for trainer Mike Hushion and owner Barry Schwartz.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shared Belief will not have a strenuous series of workouts in advance of the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.
On Wednesday at Golden Gate Fields, Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, worked a half-mile in 51.80 seconds, and more of the same is likely in the coming weeks for the 4-year-old gelding, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.
“I don’t have to be real hard on him for his next race,” Hollendorfer said. “He’s very fit and doing very well.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Starlight Racing is hoping that its undefeated Itsaknockout will move one step closer to another Kentucky Derby opportunity for the ownership group with a big performance Saturday in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. A few hours earlier, Star Ladies Racing will have plenty to root for when its up-and-coming Eskenformoney tries to put herself in the Kentucky Oaks picture with a strong effort in the Grade 2 Davona Dale.
ALBANY, Calif. – When bloodstock agent Mersad Metanovic purchased a Street Boss weanling for $10,000, he was hoping he’d made a bargain purchase of a good, useful horse.
Little did he imagine that he’d just purchased a colt who would win the race he’d always dreamed of winning, the El Camino Real Derby.
Untapable worked five furlongs in 1:01.96 on Monday as she continues gearing up for her 4-year-old debut.
Untapable worked by herself, and trainer Steve Asmussen said she would have at least one more solo drill before he would consider breezing Untapable in company. It was Untapable’s second five-furlong work and her fourth breeze in total since she returned to training this winter. She had been turned out at owner-breeder Ron Winchell’s farm in Kentucky after her win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Trainer Steve Asmussen said Cinco Charlie is scheduled to start in the $100,000 Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland Park in New Mexico on Saturday. The multiple stakes winner drew post 5 in a field of six for the 1 1/16-mile race. Casey Lambert has the mount on the horse, who is owned by Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt.
Cinco Charlie picked up the fifth stakes win of his career in last month’s Riley Allison Derby, a Sunland race repositioned from its traditional December date to January.
Put it this way: They are definitely not the post positions – the rail for Shook Up in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes and post 2 for Tiznow R J in the Risen Star – that trainer Steve Asmussen would have chosen for his top 3-year-old stakes horses Saturday at Fair Grounds.
But post positions in all but the rarest cases are assigned, not chosen, and Asmussen and his two talented horses have no choice but to play the dealt hand.
“That’s what these preps are for, to work out all the kinks,” Asmussen said. “Better to have to overcome them now and not later.”
