OLDSMAR, Fla. – Festival Preview Day’s top races last Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs produced varied results, from longshots, to disqualifications, to the validation of an up-and-coming young star.
Ocean Knight passed his first test as a 3-year-old with a hard-earned victory over a game Divining Rod in the Grade 3, $201,500 Sam F. Davis Stakes, taking an important step toward the Kentucky Derby.
Tough Sunday, a deaf colt who finished last of seven in the $250,000 California Cup Derby on Jan. 24, has been turned out at owner and breeder Nick Alexander’s farm in Santa Ynez, Calif.
Alexander said on Saturday that Tough Sunday emerged from the California Cup Derby with a cracked shin that will not require surgery.
“It’s not displaced,” Alexander said. “He’ll need 60 to 90 days.”
You Know I Know, unraced since finishing eighth in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar last August, is a candidate for the $500,000 San Antonio Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, trainer John Sadler said.
“I do want to see what the field looks like,” Sadler said.
A 6-year-old gelding, You Know I Know was third in the San Diego Handicap last July and third in the Pacific Classic in 2013.
CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome is all set to make his first start since being named Horse of the Year as he completed his serious training for Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita with an easy five-furlong workout Sunday morning at Los Alamitos.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Champion Take Charge Brandi will continue on the path to the Kentucky Oaks, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Sunday, the morning after her determined win over Sarah Sis in the $100,000 Martha Washington at Oaklawn Park.
Lukas said the road will go through Arkansas as the remaining meet objectives for Take Charge Brandi are the Grade 3, $150,000 Honeybee on March 7 and the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy on April 4.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Prospect Park earned a start in a stakes race after an impressive win in an optional claimer at a mile Friday. Now, owners Marty and Pam Wygod and trainer Clifford Sise have to pick a race.
“Marty is going to focus on where to go,” Sise said Saturday. “We want to find the easiest spot.”
One local option is the $400,000 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles March 7. California Chrome won the 2014 San Felipe and the Santa Anita Derby a month later before winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes last spring.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Punctuate was withdrawn from Sunday’s $200,000 San Vicente Stakes after becoming cast in his stall at trainer Bob Baffert’s stable Saturday.
On Saturday, Baffert said Punctuate was not injured in the incident and may not be away from the races for long. He considers the well-bred 3-year-old a candidate for the $150,000 Robert Lewis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 7.
“I’ll see how he is,” Baffert said. “I could put him in there.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hoppertunity, the winner of graded stakes at Churchill Downs and Santa Anita in his last two starts, will face the champions California Chrome and Shared Belief in the $500,000 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 7.
On Saturday, trainer Bob Baffert said Hoppertunity will be his only starter in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes, which is run at 1 1/8 miles.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Majestic Affair won his second straight sprint stakes on Thursday, galloping to a 5 3/4-length victory in the Frank Whiteley Jr. Stakes at Laurel Park. His margin of victory was the same as it was in the Fred “Cappy” Capossela Stakes at Aqueduct in January.
Because it’s a rare Kentucky Derby prep race still contested on a synthetic surface, the Grade 3, $550,000 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on March 21 seems likely to attract “niche” horses with success on such types of tracks. Some will be locals, while others may ship in after having run well on synthetic surfaces in California or at Woodbine in Canada.
Another horse, Firespike, is Spiral-bound by way of another direction – from Ocala, Fla., where he won the OBS Championship Stakes on Tuesday by 2 1/4 lengths.
