OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 27 is the main early season target for White Abarrio in 2024, it is still not certain whether the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner will make a start before then or not.
Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. maintains he is comfortable training White Abarrio up to that race and said over the weekend that the horse would remain based at Santa Anita until such time as he would ship to Saudi Arabia, which may not be until mid-February.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mike Iavarone has been trying to win the Pegasus World Cup Turf since the race was rebranded from the Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap in 2019. He hasn’t come close.
Next Shares went winless in three tries. Flavius finished last in 2022. Master Piece ran seventh in January.
Master Piece may have earned another shot at the Pegasus Turf with his victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Red Smith Stakes at Aqueduct.
The board of the Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association on Friday approved an extension to its existing agreement allowing Turf Paradise to import full-card simulcasts to Dec. 31, according to the executive director of the organization.
The extension was passed by a “slim margin” of the 10-person board, according to Leroy Gessman, the Arizona HBPA’s executive director. The current extension was set to expire on Sunday, which would have led to a blackout of full-card simulcasts at the state’s 37 off-track betting locations.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. — Trainer Chad Brown may have two runners for the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes in second-time out winner Domestic Product and the debut-winning Sierra Leone.
Domestic Product, a son of Practical Joke, won a 1 1/8-mile maiden race at Aqueduct on Oct. 27. The race came with blinkers added and about 12 weeks after he finished sixth on debut going six furlongs. Domestic Product earned a 75 Beyer Speed Figure for his maiden win.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. — Dornoch, the half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mage who won a maiden race at Keeneland last month, is back in New York and targeting the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 2.
Dornoch, trained by Danny Gargan, worked a half-mile in 49.74 seconds last Friday over the Belmont Park training track.
“He looked like he was walking and he still went in 49-and-three,” Gargan said. “He’s still green and figuring it out. He’s going to get better.”
The head of a group that intends to buy Turf Paradise in Phoenix told the Arizona Racing Commission on Thursday that live racing could start as early as Jan. 13 but that the opening date may have to be delayed depending on paperwork revolving around licensing and complying with national regulations.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Echo Zulu continues to recover at a Southern California vet clinic from fractured sesamoids sustained in a workout Oct. 13 at Santa Anita.
Echo Zulu, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2021, is expected to remain at the clinic for several weeks, according to Scott Blasi, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen.
“She continues to impress us always,” Blasi said in the Santa Anita stables on Sunday.
“She’ll be around here for a while. Every day you get further away is a good day.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., the nation’s clear leader in wins and earnings this year, has been suspended three days for causing interference in his winning ride on Goodnight Olive in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita.
In a ruling published by stewards Grant Baker, Luis Jauregui, and Kim Sawyer on Sunday, Ortiz was cited for failing to maintain a straight course and causing interference in the stretch of the seven-furlong race. Goodnight Olive was not disqualified from the victory.
ARCADIA, Calif. –It was a long Breeders’ Cup weekend for California-based stables. Very long.
On Friday and Saturday, 33 horses based in the state started in Breeders’ Cup races, with Muth (Juvenile) and National Treasure (Dirt Mile) as the only top three finishers.
Muth and National Treasure are trained by Bob Baffert, who had nine runners in Breeders’ Cup races.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tamara, the beaten favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Friday at Santa Anita, will miss two months of training after being diagnosed with a cracked splint bone, trainer Richard Mandella said Sunday.
The injury was diagnosed Saturday.
“She’ll need a couple of months off,” Mandella said. “It’s not bad. She was off a little bit.”
