Trainer Mike Maker, who swept two of the key stakes on the Retama Park calendar this season, has determined plans for both of those horses, Right On Kitten and Magna Breeze.
Right On Kitten won the $100,000 La Senorita for 2-year-old fillies on turf Oct. 11 at Retama Park to remain undefeated in two starts for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey. Maker said the filly is being pointed for the $100,000 Ginger Brew at 7 1/2 furlongs on turf Jan. 3 at Gulfstream Park.
A stakes-caliber field of filly and mare turf-sprint specialists will square off under allowance conditions in Friday’s $42,000 main event, carded at five furlongs on grass. Madame Giry, a two-time stakes winner this season, likely will be favored to defeat a field that also includes Spun Cap, Kiama, What a Party, and Peggy Joyce.
VINTON, La. – Yahilwa’s win in the $200,000 Treasure Chest last Saturday at Delta Downs was a satisfying one for trainer Jim Cassidy. It was the first stakes victory for the filly, who had been locking horns with horses such as Beholder back home in Southern California.
“She’s been hard at it for a while,” Cassidy said. “She’s run against some tough fillies. She gives you everything she’s got every time.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Honor Code, fresh off an impressive allowance victory over the weekend, will arrive at his winter home at Payson Park on Sunday and could make his next start in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope on Jan. 10, trainer Shug McGaughey said Wednesday.
McGaughey, who was not present at Aqueduct when Honor Code rallied from nearly a dozen lengths off the pace to post a one-length decision over Maleeh on Saturday, was impressed by the performance, for which his star received a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Regally Ready went four years between starts on dirt. But when he returned to that surface three months ago, he ran the race of his life, winning a stakes at Mountaineer by 12 1/2 lengths.
Now riding a three-race winning streak – with two of those wins on dirt – the 7-year-old Regally Ready will need to once again be in top form when he starts in Saturday’s Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, the final Grade 1 race of the year on this circuit.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Big fields have been entered for the twin 2-year-old stakes that anchor a terrific Stars of Tomorrow card Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Twelve colts and geldings are in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, while the same number of fillies is in the Golden Rod Stakes. Both are Grade 2, $200,000 races at 1 1/16 miles.
Lord Nelson, who owns the two highest Beyer Speed Figures (92 and 90) in the field, ships in from California as the likely Kentucky Jockey Club favorite for trainer Bob Baffert. He was assigned post 9 with Martin Garcia to ride.
DEL MAR, Calif. – California Chrome, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, on Wednesday had his most extensive day of training since arriving at Del Mar over the weekend, his morning tasks including schooling in the starting gate and then galloping a bit more than 1 1/2 miles around the main track.
Later Wednesday morning, his trainer, Art Sherman, marched over to the racing office to enter California Chrome in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hollywood Derby, which will be run Saturday and will mark the first start for California Chrome on turf.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Still seeking her first graded stakes victory, the ultra-consistent 6-year-old New York-bred mare Willet will start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Go for Wand Handicap for a third consecutive year when that one-turn, one-mile race is run here Friday.
Willet, a four-time restricted stakes winner, was beaten a head by Neffertini in the 2012 Go for Wand. Last year, she finished fourth in the Go for Wand, just one of two times in her 20-race career that she finished out of the money.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A field of nine 3-year-olds and up has been entered for a well-matched renewal of the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark Handicap, to be run Friday for the 141st time at Churchill Downs.
Pick of the Litter and Departing, the respective 1-2 finishers in the Grade 2 Fayette Stakes last month at Keeneland, are 121-pound co-highweights in the 1 1/8-mile Clark. A pair of lightly raced 3-year-olds, Hoppertunity and Constitution, also figure among the top contenders.
From the rail, and with weights and jockeys, this is the Clark lineup:
