Mondays typically are busy work days in the Steve Asmussen barn, and this week at Fair Grounds was no exception, with Asmussen putting most of his top horses in New Orleans through timed breezes.
Among the workers were Asmussen’s two leading 3-year-old hopes: Tapiture worked six furlongs in 1:12.80, and Gold Hawk went five-eighths in a snappy 1:00.60.
Since his appointment as racing secretary at Golden Gate Fields in November 2011, David Jerkens has earned the respect of Northern California horsemen in one of the toughest jobs in the racing industry. Now Jerkens has been named Del Mar’s new racing secretary, one of the racing industry’s premier jobs.
Jerkens, 35, came to Golden Gate in 2005 as assistant racing secretary and stakes coordinator. He will stay at Golden Gate until he writes the final condition book for the meet, which ends June 15. The Del Mar summer meet begins July 17, and its first fall meet starts Nov. 7.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Game On Dude will be in a familiar position at Santa Anita on Saturday – the heavy favorite in the $300,000 San Antonio Stakes.
A victory would make Game On Dude the first three-time winner of the Grade 2 San Antonio in the race’s 76-year history and put the gelding in a position for a record third victory in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 8, a race he won in 2011 and 2013.
But victories in those races would do little to answer a question dominating his career: Can Game On Dude win the Breeders’ Cup Classic?
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Bill Mott had a big weekend, winning races with Pinball and West Coast Girl on Saturday and Unbridled Ocean on Sunday. The Hall of Fame trainer will try to add a couple more Grade 1 wins to his resume this coming weekend when he sends out respective key contenders Lea and Amira’s Prince in the Donn and Gulfstream Park Turf handicaps.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tampa Bay Downs’s traditional stage-setters for its top stakes of the meeting were run Saturday, and the results were as different as night and day. Three-year-olds ran in the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam Davis Stakes on Saturday, a prep for the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, and 3-year-old fillies in the $100,000 Suncoast, a prep for the Grade 3 Florida Oaks. Both the Tampa Bay Derby and Florida Oaks will be run March 8.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – How much is having a two-time Eclipse Award champion running at your track worth these days?
Gulfstream Park management obviously believes the answer to that question is $50,000. That is the amount they will increase the purse, from $150,000 to $200,000, if two-time defending female sprint champ Groupie Doll runs, as expected, in Sunday’s Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie Stakes.
[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]
ARCADIA, Calif. – In addition to the $200,000 San Marcos Stakes, there are two other stakes Saturday at Santa Anita, and leading trainer Bob Baffert will run favorites in both races.
Game On Dude, the 13-time stakes winner, will be a heavy favorite to win the $300,000 San Antonio Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on dirt for a record third consecutive year. Game On Dude finished second to Will Take Charge, the champion 3-year-old male of 2013, in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 29.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The rematch will have to wait.
Trainer Rick Violette said Sunday that Withers Stakes winner Samraat most likely will skip the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham here on March 1 and have just one more race between now and the May 3 Kentucky Derby. Among the options are the Louisiana Derby and Florida Derby – both on March 29 – or the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 5. Samraat, who spent most of the fall at Aqueduct, did win an allowance race over the main track.
