HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park canceled the final five races on its nine-race program Sunday due to inclement weather. The decision was made after conferring with the local riding colony, according to officials.
It’s the second partial card lost during the meet. Oaklawn also has lost four full programs to bad weather since the meet began Jan. 10.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, last year’s Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes winner, will make her 3-year-old debut in a one-mile allowance race Friday at Aqueduct.
The $69,000 race, which is for 3-year-old fillies who have never won three races lifetime or who are entered for a claiming price of $75,000, drew a field of five. The other four runners are maiden winners still eligible for a first-level allowance condition.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The top three finishers from Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes – Samraat, Uncle Sigh, and In Trouble – all seem to have come out of the race in good order and, barring a change of heart or a setback, are expected to return to Aqueduct for the Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial on April 5.
Samraat ran his record to 5 for 5 with a neck victory over Uncle Sigh, the same 1-2 finish as in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes here Feb. 1. Uncle Sigh finished a neck in front of In Trouble, who was making his first start since Sept. 29.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Champion Will Take Charge and Southwest Stakes winner Tapiture put in works Sunday at Oaklawn Park before rain moved into the area and temperatures dropped. The track was rated “fast” for workouts Sunday.
Will Take Charge, preparing for Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap, came out when the track opened at 7 a.m. Central on an overcast, 60-degree morning. He was strong throughout a half-mile work in 47.80 seconds, the fastest of 74 moves at the distance Sunday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed in its familiar spot as the favorite in Pool 3 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which closed Saturday following a three-day run.
The field closed at 3-1, followed by Cairo Prince (9-1), Top Billing (11-1), Honor Code (11-1), Candy Boy (12-1), Shared Belief (15-1), Bayern (17-1), Tapiture (17-1), and Strong Mandate (18-1).
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Rydilluc, a multiple stakes-winning turf horse, sustained a soft-tissue injury when finishing fifth in the Canadian Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 22 and will miss at least the remainder of the year, according to trainer Gary Contessa.
Contessa said it hasn’t been determined whether Rydilluc will attempt to come back next year or be sold as a stallion prospect. He did say the earliest Rydilluc could return to training would be at the beginning of 2015.
Cairo Prince continued his preparations for the $1 million Florida Derby on March 29 by working five furlongs in 59.95 in company with Long River at Palm Meadows on Saturday. The breeze was just his third since registering an impressive 6 3/4-length victory over Conquest Titan in the Grade 2 Holy Bull on Jan. 25 and first since his owners sold a majority interest in the colt to Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable earlier this week.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Little Mike arrived at Gulfstream Park on Saturday to begin preparations for his 2014 campaign. But the van that brought the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner from Ocala did not stop at trainer Dale Romans’s barn, but a little farther down the road, where he was greeted by his owner and new trainer, Carlo Vaccarezza.
ARCADIA, Calif. - American Blend will need the race of his career to beat rivals such as Mucho Macho Man and Will Take Charge in next Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap.
“I’m running in a Breeders’ Cup,” said Carla Gaines, who trains American Blend.
It’s a valid reference. Mucho Macho Man and Will Take Charge were first and second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic here in November and have been shipped back to California for the Big Cap, the top race for older horses of the winter-spring meeting.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who has not ridden since late January and was suspended on Feb. 7 for failing to appear at a hearing with track stewards, met briefly with track stewards on Friday to discuss his absence.
Valenzuela, 51, who has a history of substance abuse and personal issues that have interrupted his career, is scheduled to have a formal hearing next Sunday to discuss why he did not appear to ride at Santa Anita on Jan. 24.
