HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Typically lost in the mad shuffle of something as major as Donn Handicap weekend are races or developments that normally would merit notice on their own.
The Dale Romans stable was among those flying under the Gulfstream Park radar otherwise dominated by Groupie Doll, Lea, and other stakes performers last weekend. Romans sent out a couple of nice allowance winners in Tarpy’s Surprise and Pick of the Litter, helping to turn around a meet that had been somewhat lagging.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is finding out it’s good to have a deep bench.
Hollendorfer, who trains last year’s champion 2-year-old Shared Belief, recently learned that his undefeated 3-year-old Exit Stage Left was injured and would miss Saturday’s Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields.
No problem.
Gracer, the dominant winner of Saturday’s $100,000 Dearly Precious Stakes at Aqueduct, came out of the race with a fractured sesamoid in her left front ankle and has been retired from racing, trainer Tony Dutrow confirmed Monday.
Dutrow said Gracer will be offered at public auction as a broodmare prospect in November. Gracer, a 3-year-old Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Exchange Rate who brought $150,000 at auction as a yearling, retires with a record of 4-1-1 from six starts and earnings of $243,000 for Team D and Three Chimneys racing.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Moonlight Song, the 7-year-old New York-bred gelding who has won three of his last four starts, will be pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap on March 1, trainer Charlton Baker said Monday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, trainer Leah Gyarmati’s Grade 1-winning filly, worked six furlongs in 1:18.91 over a slow Belmont Park training track Sunday. It was her sixth work since returning to training following a brief freshening after her fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Sweet Reason worked in company but pulled away from her workmate in the final furlong. Though the time was slow – the training track yielded slow times over the weekend – Gyarmati called it “a useful work.”
Jockey Luis Contreras took off his three mounts Sunday while still sore from being thrown from his mount in a turf-course incident involving three horses in the fourth race Saturday. Abdiel Jaen and Emma-Jayne Wilson were thrown from their mounts in the maiden special weight race after 3-year-old Recall Dynaformer, ridden by Contreras and trained by Roger Attfield, suddenly fell in front of them near the quarter pole.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Like a lot of folks around Tampa Bay Downs, jockey Antonio Gallardo was glad to see blue skies and sunshine on Sunday after a week of cool temperatures and rain that must have reminded him of the cold weather that prompted him to relocate from his native Spain five years ago.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While she didn’t completely rule it out, trainer Leah Gyarmati said Monday that it is unlikely Jerome Stakes winner Noble Moon will make the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 1.
It is more likely that Noble Moon will train up to the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 5, Gyarmati said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Lea served notice that he’ll be a force to reckon with in the handicap division for the remainder of the season with his dazzling 1 1/2-length victory over Eclipse Award winner Will Take Charge in Sunday’s Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
Lea received a career-best 114 Beyer Speed Figure after completing 1 1/8 miles in a track-record 1:46.86 over a fast track Sunday. The clocking easily eclipsed the old track record of 1:47.49 set by Quality Road four years earlier.
