DEL MAR, Calif. – Well Measured has shown he can fire fresh – witness his victory first time out back in January at Santa Anita. But when he returns from a 7 1/2-month layoff in the third race Friday, he “might be short,” warned his trainer, Peter Miller.
“I had wanted to run him in a five-eighths race, but he didn’t get in,” Miller said Wednesday morning. “This was the second choice.”
The third race is at seven furlongs. Well Measured drew the rail.
MIAMI – Trainer Graham Motion had plenty of options to choose from when it came to the only two graded stakes at this year’s inaugural Gulfstream Park West meet, Saturday’s Grade 3 Tropical Turf and My Charmer handicaps. Motion nominated four horses to both events.
In the end, he opted to enter Edge of Reality and Rapscallion in the Tropical Turf and only Magic of Reality for the My Charmer.
Santa Anita has raised the purses of two leading stakes for older horses – the Santa Anita Handicap and San Antonio Stakes – but eliminated the Strub Stakes for 4-year-olds for the track’s upcoming winter-spring meeting, which runs from Dec. 26 to April 19.
The Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7 will be worth $1 million, an increase of $250,000 from 2014. The Santa Anita Handicap, run at 1 1/4 miles on dirt, offered a purse of $1 million from 1986 to 2009.
The Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot and Grade 3, $400,000 Delta Downs Princess both drew overflow fields on Tuesday, when entries were taken for the Saturday features. The route races for 2-year-olds anchor a card of eight stakes worth $2.3 million. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas has the morning-line favorites for both stakes, with Mr. Z installed the track’s 5-2 choice in the Jackpot and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Take Charge Brandi made 2-1 for the Princess.
Wake Up Nick will find himself in an unfamiliar situation on Saturday when he starts in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot. He will be looking to get back into the win column after suffering his first loss in six career starts earlier this month at Santa Anita.
Wake Up Nick ran second in the $196,000 Golden State Juvenile on the Breeders’ Cup undercard Nov. 1. He was beaten
1 1/4 lengths after having to go around horses when unable to advance along the inside at a key point in the race, said his trainer, Leandro Mora.
A three-furlong workout by Shared Belief on Tuesday at Golden Gate was a maintenance move, nothing more. Still, it was meaningful – the work confirmed the gelding's condition after his tough-trip fourth as the Breeder’ Cup Classic favorite on Nov. 1.
“He’s doing very well," trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said. "It was his first breeze out of the race and he did it very nicely. Russell Baze was on him like usual, and he did real well.”
Shared Belief was timed in 36.80 seconds.
California Chrome is ready for more.
Trainer Art Sherman called the Kentucky Derby winner a “sharp horse” on Tuesday, a day after an energetic half-mile Monday work at Los Alamitos that keeps him on target for his first start on turf, which comes Nov. 29 in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.
Victor Espinoza was aboard California Chrome, whose time for the Monday workout was 47.80 seconds. It was his first recorded work since a close third-place finish Nov. 1 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Espinoza had his hands full on Monday, according to Sherman.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs on Tuesday morning canceled its 10-race Wednesday card because of unseasonably cold conditions and a frozen racetrack.
About three inches of snow fell early Monday in the Louisville area, and despite the Churchill maintenance crew harrowing the track around the clock since last Thursday, they could not prevent it from freezing. Training was canceled Tuesday morning and was expected to be canceled Wednesday, too, following an overnight low in the mid-teens.
