The Arizona Racing Commission on Tuesday approved a live racing application from Turf Paradise for a 57-date live meet in 2024 starting on Jan. 29.
The commission voted 4-0 to approve the application during an emergency meeting that was scheduled after Turf Paradise submitted the application last week. The meet is scheduled to run on a Monday-through-Thursday live racing schedule until May 4, the date of the Kentucky Derby.
The stable area at Oaklawn Park has been filling up quicker than past meets and the horse population is reflected in entries for the Arkansas track’s opening weekend cards Friday and Saturday.
Oaklawn drew 109 horses for its 10-race card Friday, with four runners listed as also-eligibles for various races. The track will put on another 10 races Saturday with 121 horses entered, including nine also-eligibles.
Oaklawn had more than 900 horses already on the grounds in the days leading up to the first day of entries last Friday, according to track president Lou Cella.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Javier Castellano has dropped his appeal of a three-day suspension handed him by the New York stewards and will sit out Thursday through Saturday.
Castellano was given the suspension for his ride on Sterling Silver, who crossed the wire first in the Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom Stakes on Oct. 1, but was deemed to have caused interference with the third-place finisher Caramel Swirl, who was elevated from third to first. Jose Lezcano, aboard the runner-up Headland, who was disqualified from second and placed third, has already served a three-day suspension.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Parx-based trainer Butch Reid won two stakes at Aqueduct over the weekend and he plans to try and win a few more over the next month.
On Sunday, Morning Matcha won the $125,000 Statue of Liberty Stakes for progeny of New York stallions. On Saturday, Dr B won the Grade 3 Go for Wand Stakes for the second consecutive year.
This Saturday, Reid will be back for more when he sends out Disco Ebo in the $120,000 Garland of Roses for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
DEL MAR, Calif. – An all-Chad Brown superfecta in a Grade 1 race for fillies and mares on turf is becoming an annual event.
On Sunday at Del Mar, the 3-year-old filly Surge Capacity caught stablemate Fluffy Socks near the finish of the $303,500 Matriarch Stakes at a mile, with two other Brown-trained runners, Beaute Cachee and Whitebeam, finishing third and fourth. Those were Brown’s only runners in the 12-horse field.
“All four ran really well,” Brown said late Sunday afternoon.
Del Mar will open its 2024 summer meeting on a Saturday for the first time, the track announced earlier this week.
Del Mar has started its summer meeting on Fridays since 2020.
The eight-week meeting will run from July 20 to Sept. 8. The track cited a late conclusion of the San Diego county fair on July 7, 2024 as the reason. The county fair has customarily ended on July 4.
One More Bid, the winner of the Grade 2 Mathis Mile at Santa Anita in December 2022, died suddenly at Santa Anita on Thursday, according to Jeff Blea, California’s equine medical director.
A necropsy will be performed in an attempt to determine a cause, Blea indicated in a text message on Friday.
Dreamfyre, a two-time Grade 3 winner who was beaten for the first time when ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 3, returned to trainer O.J. Jauregui’s stable at Golden Gate Fields on Thursday following a three-week rest.
Dreamfyre will resume training in coming days for a 2024 campaign.
“I don’t have anything in mind,” Jauregui said. “When she’s ready, I’ll figure out a spot to run.
“I think it’s better to see how sharp she is.”
Doug O’Neill won the $300,000 Zia Park Derby on Tuesday with Two Rivers Over. The horse has since returned home to Southern California.
“He looks phenomenal,” O’Neill said Thursday. “He’s back at Santa Anita. He looks really, really well.”
Two Rivers Over was a two-length winner of the Zia Derby, covering the 1 1/16 miles in a track-record-equaling time of 1:41.87. For his effort in the race, which was hand-timed, he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.
Flying Connection, who won the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks on Tuesday, will likely make her next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 La Brea at Santa Anita, trainer Todd Fincher said Thursday. The seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies is Dec. 26.
“That’s what we’re looking at,” Fincher said.
