NEW ORLEANS – Unbridled Forever probably would have been favored had she lined up in the starting gate for the Rachel Alexandra Stakes here Saturday, but when the Rachel Alexandra was run, Unbridled Forever was to be chilling in her stall.
Harpoon, In Trouble, and Surfing U S A all were nominated to the Grade 2, $200,000 Swale Stakes, a seven-furlong race to be run at Gulfstream Park next Saturday. Trainer Todd Pletcher on Friday said that Havana was scheduled for his first start of the year in the Swale, but that a final decision on where he, Harpoon, and Surfing U S A all race would be made following workouts Sunday morning.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
The unbeaten colt In Trouble has been training at Palm Meadows this winter, but he is scheduled to head north Wednesday for his 2014 debut in the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Aqueduct next Saturday. He had his final work for the race Friday morning at Palm Meadows and worked slower than trainer Tony Dutrow desired, officially five furlongs in 1:02.75 while going from the half-mile pole to a furlong past the wire.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn has announced its second purse increase of the meet after a strong Presidents Day weekend in which nearly 60,000 patrons attended the races and handle was up close to 30 percent from the corresponding holiday weekend a year ago.
Claiming races of $20,000 or less will be boosted $500 each, beginning Thursday, while all other overnight races will increase $3,000 each. The move will bring maiden special weight races to a record $60,000 at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Apparently, the millionaire mare Dixie Strike is not yet ready to be a mom.
The $100,000 Bayakoa at Oaklawn Park last week could have been the final start of her career. But her fast-closing second to Don’t Tell Sophia has pushed back the breeding card her owner, John Oxley, and her trainer, Mark Casse, had been debating.
“She got to choose her future,” Casse said. “About the five-eighths pole, I thought, ‘Well, she’s going to be a mom.’ At the half-mile pole, I thought, ‘Maybe not.’ And at the eighth pole, I said, ‘The girl’s still got it in her!’ ”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sprint stakes on the grass are few and far between, especially for fillies and mares, so it came as a bit of a surprise when only 10 signed on for Sunday’s $75,000 Ladies Turf Sprint at Gulfstream Park.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The Ocean King is the fastest qualifier for Sunday’s $112,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes for 3-year-olds. The race is restricted to horses that were maidens as of Dec. 1 and is designed for late-developing 2-year-olds or those who had training setbacks during that season.
The Ocean King would qualify on both counts.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - General a Rod’s appearance in the Fountain of Youth will be the understandable focus of trainer Mike Maker on Saturday, but well before that race he has a chance to win consecutive allowance races with horses returning from layoffs.
Honor the Kitten, idle since June, returns in race 3, a first-level optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles on turf. And then in race 4, a one-turn mile, graded stakes-placed Morgan’s Guerrilla makes his first start since October 2012 in a first-level allowance that is the comeback race for Normandy Invasion.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sometimes the hardest part about owning and training racehorses is learning how to wait. Such has been the case for trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter, who have had to wait nearly 10 months to finally get Normandy Invasion back to the races again.
Unraced since a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Normandy Invasion will launch his comeback here Saturday going a mile in a first-level optional-claiming race that serves as one of the highlights on the undercard for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
