HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Shug McGaughey said surgery to repair Top Billing’s cracked cannon bone went off without a hitch Sunday in Kentucky, and the prognosis for his recovery is good.
“Everything went perfectly,” McGaughey said. “He’ll likely stay up there and recuperate at WinStar. If all goes well, we can probably have him back in training in about four months.”
Sign began her career at age 2 winning a maiden sprint at Saratoga by nearly a dozen lengths and the Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill by four. This was during the summer and fall of 2012 – and Sign is just now getting back to work.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Owner Wesley Ward couldn’t be in attendance at Santa Anita on Sunday to watch Judy the Beauty open her 2014 campaign with an impressive victory in the Grade 3, $100,000 Las Flores Stakes. That’s because trainer Wesley Ward was too busy overseeing his latest crop of 2-year-olds as well as the rest of his large south Florida-based stable to travel across the country for the race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Throughout his four decades in racing – 30 years training horses – John DeStefano Jr. has lost countless horses through the claim box, most often without a second thought.
But there was something about Kid Cruz that made DeStefano, now the managing partner of Black Swan Stable, think twice. So, after losing Kid Cruz for $50,000 via claim Nov. 22 out of a race he won by six lengths, DeStefano made multiple attempts to buy the horse back.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – The words “overpowering” and “courageous” might best describe the performances of Testa Rossi and Cloud Scapes in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks and Grade 3 Hillsborough Stakes as those two distaffers took different routes to victory Saturday on the strong undercard for the Tampa Bay Derby.
In the case of Testa Rossi, it was simply a case of a world-class filly using a Grade 3 stakes as a coming-out party for 2014, as jockey Jose Lezcano took no chances with the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf runner-up.
Wise Dan, the reigning two-time Horse of the Year, had his third breeze on the comeback trail when going a half-mile Sunday morning in 48 seconds over the Polytrack surface at his home base at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.
The work came one week after Wise Dan had his second breeze. Trainer Charlie LoPresti said he would have preferred to wait another day or two, but the Keeneland surface was to be closed several days this week, starting Monday, for regularly scheduled maintenance work.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tapiture was out for a maintenance move Monday at Oaklawn Park, breezing a half-mile in 50.20 seconds in preparation for the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel on Saturday.
Tapiture could go favored in the 1 1/16-mile race following his win in last month’s Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest at Oaklawn. He was a 4 1/2-length winner for Winchell Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ria Antonia, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies via disqualification at Santa Anita last November, worked a half-mile in 47 seconds Saturday.
Ria Antonia was recently transferred to trainer Bob Baffert, with the intent of giving her a start in the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks over 1 1/16 miles on April 5.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sahara Sky, the winner of Saturday’s $200,000 San Carlos Stakes, will follow a familiar path to the $1,250,000 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park on June 7, a race he won in 2013.
Sahara Sky is a candidate for the $500,000 Carter Handicap over seven furlongs at Aqueduct on April 5 as a prep for the Met Mile, according to Dan Ward, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s assistant. In 2013, Sahara Sky was second in the Carter Handicap.
