OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Ria Antonia, winner via disqualification of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November, took the first significant step toward her 3-year-old debut by breezing three furlongs Sunday morning in 36.62 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.
It was her first timed workout since the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup, a race in which she finished second by a nose but was elevated to first by the stewards, who felt she was interfered with in deep stretch by She’s a Tiger.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Leah Gyarmati plans to run Noble Moon twice more before hopefully making it to the Kentucky Derby on May 3. Though one of those starts will be the Grade 1 Wood Memorial here at Aqueduct on April 5, the other race - the next one - has not yet been determined.
Her initial thought immediately following Noble Moon’s two-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Jerome was to wait for the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham Stakes on March 1. However, Gyarmati said Sunday she may elect to run back in the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes on Feb. 1 instead.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Egg Drop, who won her final three starts of 2013, all in graded stakes, will remain in training this year, according to Billy Koch, the founder of the Little Red Feather syndicate.
Egg Drop was nominated to the January horses of all ages sale at Keeneland next week, but will stay with trainer Mike Mitchell.
“We are pulling her out of the sale and running in 2014,” Koch said. “We’re looking forward to the new year.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Commissioner and Top Billing enhanced their status within the 3-year-old division here at Gulfstream Park after finishing a neck apart as the one-two finishers in a talent-laden 1 1/8-mile allowance Friday.
Making his first start since winning his maiden going the same distance at Saratoga more than four months earlier, Commissioner rallied from just off the pace before narrowly getting the best of Top Billing following a stretch-long battle. It gave jockey Jose Lezcano his fourth victory on the card.
Apprentice jockey Gonzalo Nicolas faces four to six weeks on the sidelines after suffering an injury to his lower back in a one-horse spill Thursday, according to his agent, Vince DeGregory.
Nicolas, who began riding in 2013 and has 25 wins, was unseated when Shand fell in early stretch of Thursday’s eighth race for maiden claimers over six furlongs. Nicolas was transported to a local hospital and released Thursday evening.
Shand was euthanized as a result of injuries suffered in the spill, trainer Peter Eurton said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shared Belief, a top contender for the Eclipse Award as the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 at Santa Anita on Friday morning.
Shared Belief could have done much more, jockey Corey Nakatani said.
Nakatani noticed in early stretch that Shared Belief had caught a glimpse of two horses working in front of him, and he quickened noticeably.
“He wanted to go,” Nakatani said. “He was just waiting for me to give him the cue to go.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Jose Garafalo has confirmed that Wildcat Red will make his next start in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Jan. 25. Wildcat Red, who broke from the rail, was narrowly defeated by General a Rod in a game effort in Wednesday’s Gulfstream Park Derby.
“He ran a hell of a race,” Garafalo said. “The best-case scenario would have been to win, but considering he’d been off two months, the post position and all the speed in the race, he did a great job, and I’m okay with it.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With 23 wins and slightly more than $1 million in purse earnings, 69-year-old John Toscano Jr. in 2013 enjoyed his most successful year in nearly three decades of training horses.
Toscano kicked off 2014 in winning fashion when My Lucky Lieu won a maiden $12,500 claiming race on Thursday’s card at Aqueduct. Sunday, Toscano hopes Miss Da Point can pick up where she left off when she runs in the $75,000 Judy Soda Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares at one mile.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Louie Roussel III, who won three races on the Dec. 27 card at Fair Grounds, said he isn’t sure if he had a previous three-win day at his hometown track. If he did, he said, it happened more than 25 years ago.
About that long ago, Risen Star was making Roussel known nationally. In 1988, Risen Star, trained by Roussel and owned by him and Ronnie Lamarque, won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes en route to earning the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old male.
Dylan Davis was conspicuous by his presence earlier this week at Turfway Park when the 19-year-old apprentice rode three winners on the last two days of 2013.
Davis had a combined five mounts Monday and Tuesday at the northern Kentucky track. The mounts were lined up by Jimmy McNerney, who has worked as Davis’s agent for much of the year.
“We were just trying to pad our stats as much as we could before the year ended,” McNerney said. “Every little bit helps, I guess.”
