ARCADIA, Calif. – Kristo, third in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 8, is a candidate for the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 5 as a last-chance prep for the Kentucky Derby, trainer John Sadler said.
Kristo has 1 win in 5 starts and was second in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 11. Sadler said Kristo needs a big performance in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial over 1 1/8 miles to move toward a start at Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela told Santa Anita stewards March 9 that his riding career was “done” after he failed to show up to ride Jan. 24-25, and that he wanted to work as an exercise rider for income.
On Friday, the stewards denied that request, stating in a one-page ruling that Valenzuela not be eligible to ride or work as an exercise rider through October 2015, the term of his current jockey’s license.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Samraat and Uncle Sigh, the one-two finishers in both the Grade 3 Withers and Grade 3 Gotham, remain in lockstep, at least as far as their preparation for the $1 million Wood Memorial on April 5 is concerned, as both 3-year-olds returned to the work tab Saturday.
At Belmont Park, Uncle Sigh worked five furlongs in 1:01.79 over the training track, getting his last quarter-mile in 24.01 seconds while under minimal encouragement from exercise rider Nick Santagata. Uncle Sigh galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.08.
Apprentice jockey Courtney Hernandez won the first race of her career Friday night at Delta Downs, when her mount, Mission to Collect, finished in a dead heat for the win with Xstream Heart. The victory came in the fourth race. Hernandez rode Mission to Collect ($10.60) for trainer Shelton Zenon, Jr.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Shug McGaughey and his longtime assistant Buzz Tenney, lifelong friends since attending grade school together in Lexington, Ky., have parted ways following a 29 1/2-year association on the racetrack.
“It came as a surprise, no doubt, when I got the news earlier this week,” Tenney said on Saturday. “It’s been a good go. I always wanted to work around good horses, and by being with Shug, I certainly was given an opportunity to do that.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – There is a two-day pick six carryover of $226,505 for Saturday’s nine-race program at Santa Anita.
Upset wins by Ancient Stone ($40.80) and Boozer ($42.20) in consecutive races Friday clinched the carryover. The pool of new money could exceed $1 million.
Saturday’s pick six covers the fourth through ninth races on a program that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.
Lynn Chleborad got the 1,000th win of her training career Friday at Oaklawn Park when The Rock Rolls rallied to capture the 10th race by 2 3/4 lengths. Alex Birzer was aboard for longtime Chleborad client Poindexter Thoroughbreds. The Rock Rolls, racing in a $16,000 claiming sprint, paid $11.60.
Chleborad is a Nebraska native whose first training win came in the state at Lincoln on Oct. 9, 1987. She said reaching the milestone has a great deal of personal meaning.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Joe Orseno picked a few plums out of last year’s dispersal sale for the horses who participated in Frank Stronach’s innovative but short-lived Horse Racing League, including recent allowance winner Oasis at Midnight. On Sunday, Orseno will unveil perhaps the best of his acquisitions from that sale, the lightly raced Palm Island, who’ll face a strong group of first-level optional-claiming rivals, including the Grade 2-placed Morgan’s Guerrilla and impressive maiden winner Accelerare. The seven-furlong race is race 7 on the card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The top sprinter Action Andy got back on the winning track in Friday’s featured fourth race, cruising to victory over the odds-on Apriority. The win was the first for Action Andy since he registered back-to-back victories in Laurel’s Frank De Francis Memorial and Tampa Bay Downs’s Pelican Stakes during the fall of 2012. Action Andy completed 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.89, .49 of a second off the track record, despite being geared down at the end by jockey Paco Lopez.
Action Andy was in for the $100,000 tag in the optional-claiming race.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Secret Circle, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last November, will not start in the $2 million Golden Shaheen in Dubai on March 29, trainer Bob Baffert said on Friday.
Baffert said he prefers not to start Secret Circle on the Tapeta Footings synthetic surface at Meydan Racecourse, and plans to keep the 5-year-old horse in the United States for his next start, which will come on a dirt track. Baffet said no plans have been finalized for Secret Circle, who finished second in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes on Feb. 2.
