Due to the effects of Saturday’s winter storm, Sunday’s 10-race program at Aqueduct was canceled, the third straight card lost this week. Aqueduct has not raced since Monday.
It is the seventh full card of the inner-track meet lost due to weather, one more than last year but one fewer than in 2010-11, when eight full cards were canceled due to weather.
Tom Amoss put several stakes horses through timed workouts Saturday morning at Fair Grounds, including Risen Star hopeful Rise Up, who whizzed through a half-mile in a near-bullet 47.40 seconds.
Other prominent Amoss workers included Mylute, whose half-mile in 49.20 seconds was his first published racetrack work since he went to the sidelines following the Jim Dandy Stakes last July; and Delaunay, who went a half-mile in 48.60, his first drill since he won the Gaudin Stakes last month at Fair Grounds in his first race in about five months.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Setsuko is 7 and winless in three starts in the last two years. One of those losses was a second to Ron the Greek in the 2012 Santa Anita Handicap, a performance that has trainer Richard Mandella thinking of another Big Cap start in the $750,000 race on March 8.
Setsuko was fifth in an optional claimer Jan. 1, but emerged from the race with an illness. His training in recent weeks has given Mandella hope that the Big Cap is a reasonable goal.
“His last race wasn’t very good, but he was a little sick coming out of it,” Mandella said. “He’s coming along.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Cairo Prince had his first workout since his 5 3/4-length romp in the Holy Bull when going an easy half-mile Saturday in 48.60 seconds over a fast track at the Palm Meadows training center.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he was very happy with how Cairo Prince proceeded through the breeze, which came on a bright, brisk morning at a little before 9 a.m. Eastern and with exercise rider Rob Massey aboard.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The connections of Mucho Macho Man said Saturday that the reigning Breeders’ Cup Classic champion will return to the scene of his finest hour to make his next start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 8.
The announcement that Mucho Macho Man would decline an invitation to compete in the $10 million Dubai World Cup and instead go back to Santa Anita came several hours after Mucho Macho Man turned in a sensational 58.16-second work at Gulfstream Park that morning.
Macha outfinished Eblouissante to score a mild upset in Thursday’s second race. The win helped trainer Jerry Hollendorfer stay tied with Bob Baffert for first in the trainer’s standings with 20 victories through the first 31 days of the meeting.
Macha ($8.20) closed from last in a field of five to beat 3-5 Eblouissante by 1 1/4 lengths in the race over 1 1/16 miles. Eblouissante, a half-sister to 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, led by a length at the eighth pole, but could not sustain her advantage.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bayern could make his stakes debut in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 8 after a 15-length win in an allowance race Thursday at Santa Anita.
Trainer Bob Baffert said Friday that he will make a final decision on Bayern’s participation in the San Felipe in coming weeks.
“I’ll either run in the San Felipe, or skip it and wait for the Santa Anita Derby,” Baffert said. “He’s happy. He looked good after the race.”
The Grade 2 San Felipe is run over 1 1/16 miles and is a prep race for the $1 million Santa Anita Derby over 1 1/8 miles April 5.
Fair Grounds stakes coordinator Scott Jones said he’s excited by the fillies headed toward the Rachel Alexandra, the final local stakes prep for the Fair Grounds Oaks.
Ria Antonia, trained by Jeremiah Englehart, and Streaming, being considered for the race by trainer Bob Baffert, are Grade 1 winners. Ria Antonia was placed first in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies after the disqualification of She's a Tiger. Streaming won the Hollywood Starlet and was second in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita.
Retired trainer Larry Robideaux, trainer Bret Calhoun, and Proud Spell, who pulled off a Fair Grounds Oaks/Kentucky Oaks double in 2008, have been elected to the Fair Grounds Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be held on March 12.
Robideaux won the Fair Grounds Oaks in 1972 with My Charmer, who gained fame as the dam of Seattle Slew. Calhoun, who has ranked among the leading trainers at the Fair Grounds for several years, won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint with Chamberlain Bridge and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Dubai Majesty in 2010.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Eddie Kenneally thinks he has a nice 3-year-old in Schivarelli, but what he is less sure of is how far the son of Montbrook wants to run.
After overcoming a bumping incident at the start to win his debut going six furlongs, Schivarelli will experiment around two turns when he runs in a $67,000 first-level allowance race going a mile Sunday at Aqueduct.
A field of six was entered for the featured event on a 10-race program at Aqueduct that includes two races brought back from Friday’s canceled card.
