ARCADIA, Calif. – Big Macher will be pointed for the $200,000 Palos Verdes Stakes at six furlongs on Jan. 31 at Santa Anita after he was scratched from Saturday’s $150,000 California Cup Sprint by trainer Richard Baltas.
Baltas said on Friday that he is considering a start for Big Macher in the $2 million Golden Shaheen Stakes at about six furlongs at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on March 28. He said that Big Macher’s rail draw in the Cal Cup Sprint “was part of” the decision to scratch.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the two-time champion, is in full training at Santa Anita and drawing rave reviews from Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella.
“She looks better than ever,” Mandella said.
Reminded that Beholder was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and the champion 3-year-old filly of 2013, Mandella reiterated his position.
“I’m telling you, she looks better than ever,” he said. “She looks bigger and stronger.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Cozmic One, the first foal out of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, worked five furlongs in 1:03 on Friday at Santa Anita in preparation for his first start. Cozmic One could make his debut in the next month.
Owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, who raced Zenyatta, Cozmic One will need additional works and gate schooling before she runs, trainer John Shirreffs said. Shirreffs trained Zenyatta, who won her first 19 starts in a 20-race career.
“He has to get his final okay at the gate,” Shirreffs said. “We’re getting him used to working in company right now.”
There is nothing surprising about where the top three finishers from last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile are training this winter. The victorious Texas Red is working at Santa Anita toward his 3-year-old debut, and the runner-up Carpe Diem and the third-place Upstart are gearing up in Florida, with the latter entered in Saturday’s Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream for his first start of 2015.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Hugh Robertson hasn’t run many horses at this Fair Grounds meet, but they’re paying the bills.
Through Thursday, Robertson had 5 wins, 2 seconds, and 6 thirds from 18 starts (a 72 percent in-the-money rate), and his horses had earned $155,410.
“I kind of freshened up for this meet,” said Robertson, who comes south from Chicago for the winter. “I didn’t run much at Hawthorne.”
Robertson said he sold five or six cheap horses before leaving for New Orleans.
NEW ORLEANS – In the track kitchen at Fair Grounds last Sunday, jockey Jose Riquelme was accepting congratulations from other riders, agents, trainers, and others who work on the backstretch for his win the day before in the Louisiana Handicap on Hard Aces. His victory clearly was popular.
“Everybody’s happy,” Riquelme said. “Everybody’s pulling for me. It’s hard to get in the big stables. They have to see you doing good. It’s hard to get the good horses.”
Laurel Park has canceled its Friday card due to an uneven racing surface caused by a freeze-thaw weather pattern this week.
“The track is freezing at night and thawing during the afternoon. It is just uneven,” said Sal Sinatra, general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Laurel. “Until we can get some consistency, with it being either above freezing or below freezing for 24-7 where we can work it, we are going to be touch-and-go every day.”
Laurel had to cancel its Martin Luther King holiday card last Monday following freezing rain last Sunday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Following another equine fatality at Aqueduct Thursday – the 14th in 26 full cards of racing since the inner track opened on Dec. 3 – several horsemen met with New York Racing Association management, the second such meeting in 12 days.
Unlike the meeting held on Jan. 10, this one was attended by Chris Kay, NYRA president and CEO, as well as owners and NYRA board members Anthony Bonomo and Michael Dubb. Ten trainers – most of them on the board of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association – also attended the meeting.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Mike Hushion is mulling his options for Scarly Charly and Captain Serious, both of whom won sprint races over the weekend at Aqueduct.
On Sunday, Scarly Charly won a high-caliber second-level allowance race, earning a 91 Beyer Speed Figure. He ran six furlongs in 1:11.07 over a sloppy track. A 6-year-old gelding, he was running in blinkers for the first time.
“I do think the blinkers made a difference with him,” Hushion said. “He’s a horse that looks around a lot.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, the multiple Grade 1-winning filly who was an Eclipse Award finalist in two categories, recently rejoined trainer Leah Gyarmati’s Belmont Park stable and has begun training toward her 4-year-old debut.
Sweet Reason was sent to a New Jersey farm following her eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita in November.
Gyarmati said Sweet Reason had her first day of galloping Wednesday and is likely several weeks away from a breeze.
