OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Halina’s Forte, winner of Saturday’s Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct, left New York Sunday to return to Kentucky where she will most likely make her next start, trainer Phil Bauer said.
What’s less determined is at what distance Halina’s Forte will run next. Options include the Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland on April 5 at 1 1/16 miles or the Grade 2, $400,000 Beaumont at seven furlongs on April 7. Both races are at Keeneland.
Pacesetting Track Phantom could not hold off hard charging Sierra Leone on Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Risen Star Stakes, but next month in the Louisiana Derby he won’t have to.
While Track Phantom is a likely runner in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 23, Sierra Leone will be pointed to the $1 million Blue Grass Stakes on April 6 at Keeneland, trainer Chad Brown confirmed Sunday. Brown had said before the Risen Star that his intention was to use the Fair Grounds race and the Blue Grass as Sierra Leone’s path to the Kentucky Derby.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Timberlake will be part of a field of 13 when he makes his first start since the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in the Grade 2, $1.25 million Rebel Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
Entries for the 1 1/16-mile race were drawn Sunday. It anchors a 12-race card that will have a special first post of noon Central.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Ain’t Life Grand and Tyler’s Tribe are both set to return from layoffs soon after the Iowa-bred stars turned in notable works Thursday at Oaklawn.
Ain’t Life Grand worked by himself. He went five-eighths from the gate in 1:01.80 as he prepares for his first start since July, when he was a close third in the Grade 3 Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows.
“I thought he worked really good,” trainer Kelly Von Hemel said. “Now, we’ll just start looking for a race. He’s been off a while, so we just as soon have an allowance race before going into deeper water.”
Miss Code West, who was the horse of the meet at Remington Park, has a stakes engagement next month at Sam Houston.
Trainer Kevin Scholl said the three-time stakes winner is targeting the $100,000 Texas Thoroughbred Association Oaks on March 23. The two-turn race for 3-year-old fillies is restricted to graduates of a yearling sale conducted by the TTA.
Miss Code West last raced in January, finishing fourth in the Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds. She had won all four of her starts heading into the stakes.
Neat, who won the Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile last month at Sam Houston, is pointing to an upcoming stakes at his base of Fair Grounds.
Trainer Rob Atras said Neat is on deck for the $75,000 Black Gold for 3-year-olds at an “about” distance of 1 1/16 miles on turf March 2.
Neat was a 5 1/2-length winner of the Texas Turf Mile and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 84.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tapatio Leo won his fourth straight race in a Feb. 10 allowance at Oaklawn, and the California-bred likely will see stakes action at the meet, according to trainer Peter Miller.
Tapatio Leo shipped in from Southern California, where he had reeled off three straight allowance wins dating back to September at Del Mar.
“He’s a very fast and really good sprinter, and we’re thinking about possibly the sprint series over at Oaklawn,” Miller said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Donnie Von Hemel will attempt to win the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap for the fourth time next Saturday at Oaklawn Park when he saddles the well-bred Bolzy.
The $600,000 race is one of four stakes scheduled to be run on a card led by the Grade 2, $1.25 million Rebel.
Bolzy is a son of Gun Runner and the Grade 3-winning millionaire She’s All In. He will be making his stakes debut after a Jan. 28 allowance win at the Razorback’s 1 1/16-mile distance. Bolzy popped a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said he plans to send out two of his potential candidates for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2 at Gulfstream Park – Locked and Born Noble – for key workouts Friday at his winter headquarters at the Palm Beach Downs training center.
Jockey Ryan Moore, the most high-profile rider in the world, has been fined $20,800 and suspended one day after losing an appeal of a ruling originally issued on Breeders’ Cup weekend last November, according to a decision published by Santa Anita stewards last weekend.
Moore was originally sanctioned for a whip violation aboard Auguste Rodin in the $4 million BC Turf on Nov. 4, the nation’s richest turf race. Auguste Rodin closed along the inside in the stretch to win by three-quarters of a length over Up to the Mark.
