OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Hot Fudge gave trainer Linda Rice her 2,400th career win when she captured Saturday’s Garland of Roses Stakes. It also was Rice’s 157th win on the New York Racing Association circuit this year, moving her within seven of David Jacobson’s single-year record of 164.
Hot Fudge ran in the Garland of Roses eight days after she won an allowance race at Aqueduct in her first start off a near six-month layoff.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – White Chocolate is likely headed back to stakes company after a decisive 3 1/2-length victory in a first-level allowance race run at Aqueduct on Sunday.
One of three winners ridden on Sunday’s card by Romero Maragh, White Chocolate broke running from her outside draw, set some solid early fractions, and galloped home a decisive winner. She ran six furlongs in 1:10.58 and earned an 86 Beyer Speed Figure. That number equaled her career best, also earned over a sloppy track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – P Mutter Pickle, an eye-catching debut winner of a New York-bred maiden race for 2-year-old fillies on Nov. 19, will face winners for the first time in a first-level allowance race Thursday at Aqueduct.
A daughter of Vino Rosso trained by Phil Antonacci for Stuart Grant’s The Elkstone Group, P Mutter Pickle galloped to an 8 1/4-length victory while being geared down late by Irad Ortiz Jr. She ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:18.33 and earned a 66 Beyer Speed Figure.
Santa Anita will begin its winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26 with overnight purses slightly lower than the corresponding meeting last year.
The purses will equal what the track offered earlier this year at the spring and autumn meetings.
This winter, a maiden race will be worth $65,000, compared to $67,000 last winter and $61,000 at the fall meeting that ended on Nov. 5.
The purse of a first-condition allowance race has declined from $72,000 last winter to $67,000 this winter. The race was worth $63,000 at the spring and autumn meetings.
Slow Down Andy, who missed the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita this fall because of a swollen ankle, is scheduled to return to trainer Doug O’Neill’s stable this weekend after a rest at owners Paul and Zillah Reddam’s Southern California farm.
Slow Down Andy is expected to race at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting in early 2024.
“We’re excited to have him back for Santa Anita,” O’Neill said.
The two-time stakes winner Forbidden Kingdom, unraced since May, is expected to make his second career turf start in the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside course at Santa Anita on Dec. 30.
Trained by Richard Mandella, Forbidden Kingdom has won 3 of 11 starts and earned $559,500 in a career plagued by setbacks. As a 2-year-old, he finished third on turf in the five-furlong Speakeasy Stakes at Santa Anita.
“I may try him in the Hernandez,” Mandella said on Friday a few hours after Forbidden Kingdom worked five furlongs in 1:02 at Santa Anita.
Jockey Cindy Murphy, who established herself as one of the most successful female riders in racing, has retired. She will continue to work horses for the racing stable operation that she shares with her husband, trainer Travis Murphy.
“People are still going to see me out there in the mornings,” Murphy, 61, said Thursday. “I’ll still help gallop and work horses.”
Jockeys Keith James Asmussen and Erik Asmussen were both named on horses Saturday at Oaklawn – and they’re not the first members of their family to ride on the same card.
Back in the 1980s, their father, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, and their uncle, France’s five-time champion jockey Cash Asmussen, had mounts in the same race at Aqueduct.
Jockeys Tyler Gaffalione, Flavien Prat, and Luis Saez are among the riders who will be at Remington Park in Oklahoma City next Friday night for the $300,000 Springboard Mile.
The race for 2-year-olds awards eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby. The first five finishers will earn them on a scale of 10-5-3-2-1.
Gaffalione has the mount on Otto the Conqueror, who will break from post 8 in the nine-horse Springboard Mile. Prat has been named on Gettysburg Address, who starts from post 3. Saez will team from Glengarry from post 5.
There are 47 scheduled days of racing at Aqueduct’s upcoming winter meet -- two more than the previous winter -- as the New York Racing Association released part of its 2024 racing calendar on Friday.
The winter meet will run from Jan. 1-March 30, with the New Year’s Day program capping a five-day week beginning Dec. 28. From Jan. 4-21, racing will be conducted four days a week (Thursdays through Sundays). From Jan. 26-March 3, racing will be conducted three days a week (Fridays through Sundays), though a Presidents’ Day Monday card will be held on Feb. 19.
