OLDSMAR, Fla. – People in racing, whether they are owners, trainers, or bettors, have learned through painful experience that one dazzling performance does not necessarily qualify a horse as a star. But those who were on hand at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday, when Catalina Red demolished his eight rivals in the $66,000 Inaugural Stakes, had to come away thinking that this horse has a very bright future.
Golden Gate Fields said it will offer 12 stakes during its 97-day winter-spring meet, which begins Dec. 26.
The stakes schedule is identical to that offered during the 2013-14 meet, with the exception of date changes for a pair of $100,000 turf races for 3-year-old California-breds.
The Campanile for 3-year-old fillies and Silky Sullivan for 3-year-olds will be run on April 26, the day after the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile is run. The Campanile and Silky Sullivan were run in June in 2014.
Acceptance, the unbeaten winner of the Golden State Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, worked seven furlongs in 1:23.80 on Sunday, preparing for a start in the $200,000 King Glorious Stakes for California-breds over a mile next Sunday at Los Alamitos.
“He seems to be doing really well,” said co-owner and breeder Bud Johnston. “He’d never been around there. The track is pretty fast and he worked well. He seemed to handle everything beautifully.”
Maybellene, second in the four-runner Desi Arnaz Stakes over seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 16, will be trainer Bob Baffert’s lone hope in the $350,000 Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles next Saturday at Los Alamitos.
Sunday at Santa Anita, Maybellene worked a half-mile in 48.60 seconds.
“She’s all set,” Baffert said. “She’s been solid so far.”
CYPRESS, Calif. – A day before Saturday’s $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos, Tiz Midnight was walked from the stables to the paddock for a routine schooling session. The trip was a disaster.
“She fell apart,” trainer Bob Baffert recalled. “She had a meltdown. She’ll do that.”
In the Bayakoa, Tiz Midnight displayed the opposite behavior. She was better behaved while being saddled and ran accordingly, winning the Grade 2 race for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles in track-record time for her first stakes win.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Irad Ortiz Jr., who will finish the year as leading rider on the New York Racing Association circuit in wins and purse money won, will miss a few days next week to ride in a jockey challenge in Hong Kong.
Ortiz, who was to ride Saturday’s opening-day program at Gulfstream Park, will be here Sunday and then leave for Hong Kong early Monday morning. He will return in time to ride at Aqueduct next Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Kid Cruz, who emerged from the claiming ranks to be a multiple stakes winner in 2014, is back with trainer Linda Rice after recovering from surgery to remove a knee chip following his fourth-place finish in last summer’s Travers Stakes.
Rice said Friday was Kid Cruz’s first day under tack. He will walk under tack for about two weeks before starting training in mid-December.
Rice said she was hopeful to have Kid Cruz ready to run by March or April.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There’s something about Aqueduct’s inner track that brings out the best in Awesome Vision.
Awesome Vision, a 5-year-old son of Awesome Again, made it 5 for 10 over the inner track with an emphatic six-length victory in a New York-bred allowance race on Thursday, setting him up for a run in the $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes here on Dec. 31. Awesome Vision finished third as the even-money favorite in last year’s Alex Robb.
King Leatherbury acknowledges he had second thoughts following Ben’s Cat’s emphatic victory in last week’s $200,000 Fabulous Strike Stakes at Penn National, but he ultimately decided to follow the same path with the 8-year-old as he has the past three winters.
After all, why mess with a winning formula?
Sunday’s $200,000 Soviet Problem Stakes for California-bred 2-year-old fillies at Los Alamitos is missing one of the division’s top runners. Long Hot Summer, the undefeated stakes winner, is being prepared for a comeback at Santa Anita this winter.
