HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– Will Take Charge will have some company when he ships from Oaklawn Park to Southern California on Monday to run in the Santa Anita Handicap. Will Take Charge will be joined on his trip by Optimizer, who is to run in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile, and Unstoppable Colby, who goes in the San Felipe, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said on Friday.
The three races are March 8. Luis Saez, the regular rider on Will Take Charge, has the mount on each of the horses, said Lukas.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mean Season, who impressed with an eight-length first-level allowance win in his New York debut Dec. 22, will make his 4-year-old debut Saturday in a second-level allowance race that goes as race 3 on the 10-race card.
Mean Season was entered in a spot similar to this Jan. 18 but scratched due to a temperature he spiked a few days before the race. Mean Season, who is 2 for 2, has worked three times since Feb. 10, including a half-mile in 47.60 seconds Feb. 24 that was the fastest of 119 works at the distance over the Belmont training track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Noble Moon, hampered by foot problems since winning the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes on Jan. 4, worked a half-mile in 51.46 seconds Thursday over the Belmont training track as he attempts to make it back for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 5.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Leading jockey Rafael Bejarano will ride Silentio in the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile on March 8.
Bejarano has won stakes aboard Silentio and Winning Prize, and both are expected to run in the Kilroe. Silentio, third in the BC Mile last November, has not raced since winning the Grade 2 Citation Handicap under Bejarano at Hollywood Park last November.
Mucho Macho Man, who won the Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 18 in his only start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, galloped a mile on the training track Thursday for his start in the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap.
The Santa Anita main track was not open for training on Thursday after approximately a half-inch of rain fell on the sealed surface, track officials said.
Trainer Kathy Ritvo said Mucho Macho Man is likely to have a final workout for the March 8 Big Cap on Sunday or Monday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Clubhouse Ride is running in a stakes at Santa Anita on March 8, and there is no shortage of races to choose from.
“I can say with certainty he is going to run that day,” trainer Craig Lewis said.
A decision on which race may not be made until next Wednesday, when entries are due. Lewis has three options for the 6-year-old horse – the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on dirt, the $350,000 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf, and the $250,000 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs on dirt.
Hard Not to Like, idle since her seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Spinster on Oct. 6, will return to the turf to launch her 2014 campaign under allowance conditions at Gulfstream Park in Friday’s $54,500 main event carded at 1 1/16 miles on the grass.
Hard Not to Like is no stranger to the local course, having won the Grade 3 Marshua’s River here last winter. She was also Grade 1-placed at 3, finishing second in the Ashland as a prelude to her sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.
Trainer Bill Kaplan was extremely pleased with East Hall’s fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream, a performance that earned the improving 3-year-old five Kentucky Derby qualifier points. East Hall overcame a terrible starting position – post 12 on the extreme outside – and speed-favoring course to rally from last to finish 6 1/2 lengths behind Wildcat Red and General a Rod in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth. East Hall had finished third behind the same pair in the Gulfstream Park Derby on Jan. 1.
The main local prep for Turfway Park’s showcase event will be run Saturday at the Florence, Ky., track, where 11 3-year-olds will go postward in the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial.
The 1 1/16-mile Battaglia comes three weeks before the Grade 3, $550,000 Spiral Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile race worth 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the winner.
From the rail, this is the Battaglia field: Poker Player, Solitary Ranger, Canzoni, Emmett Park, Red River Rising, Laddie Boy, Kids Rule, General Jack, Empower, Chester’s Park, and Harry’s Holiday.
The $300,000 Zia Park Oaks, which was introduced last year, will be renewed Nov. 26 as part of a $1.1 million card of seven stakes at the Hobbs, N.M., track. Zia Park, which opens a mixed meet Sept. 6, released its stakes schedule Wednesday. The track will race 56 dates through Dec. 2.
