Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has been known to split its prep races for the Kentucky Derby, and there’s a chance that could happen for the first points race of the coming year, the $300,000 Smarty Jones on Jan. 1.
Lou Cella, president of Oaklawn, said the track is fielding a level of interest in the race that has already warranted internal discussions about the potential for two divisions of the Smarty Jones.
For a mare who had not started in five months, Queen Goddess gave a stellar performance to finish a close second in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
The $200,000 race was a good prize of its own, but was considered a prep for Queen Goddess for Sunday’s Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Del Mar.
“In our opinion, she ran too good to lose in the Goldikova after a layoff,” said Aron Wellman, the president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which co-owns Queen Goddess.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mike Maker lost one of the most successful and beloved members of his potent stable after the 9-year-old Cross Border succumbed to an apparent cardiac arrest during a routine training session early Thursday morning at Gulfstream Park.
The incident occurred just five days after another veteran multiple graded stakes winner in Maker’s barn, Endorsed, was vanned off with a fractured sesamoid after pulling up following a five-furlong workout last Saturday.
Bill Downes, the track announcer at Emerald Downs in Washington State earlier this year, has been named the track announcer at Golden Gate Fields for the track’s winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26.
Downes will replace Matt Dinerman, who left Golden Gate Fields after Sunday’s races to become the track announcer at Oaklawn Park, which opens its winter-spring meeting on Dec. 8.
Frank Mirahmadi will call the races at Golden Gate Fields beginning Friday through the end of the track’s current autumn meeting on Dec. 10.
Charlene’s Dream earned a trip to Southern California after her second consecutive stakes win up north in the Golden Gate Debutante at six furlongs last Saturday.
Trainer Ed Moger Jr. said a race such as the Grade 3 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Jan. 7 may fit in the early winter calendar for Charlene’s Dream, a winner of 3 of 4 starts since her career began in late August.
“I’ve been pretty high on her,” Moger said. “I’m thinking in January I’d like to try a Grade 3 or something. We can test her.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Life Talk, fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, heads a field of nine 2-year-old fillies entered in the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes at 1 1/8 miles.
Life Talk was a 6 1/2-length maiden winner at second asking at Saratoga before running third behind Just F Y I in the Grade 1 Frizette and fourth behind that one in the BC Juvenile Fillies.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There does not appear to be a standout nor a throwout in the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes, which drew a field of 10 2-year-olds trying to negotiate 1 1/8 miles.
The favorite for the race is not easily identifiable with perhaps Moonlight, second in the Street Sense Stakes, Dornoch, a maiden winner and full brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mage, and Domestic Product, a maiden winner at 1 1/8 miles vying for that title.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Led by the top three finishers from the Grade 2 Forty Niner Stakes and three graduates from the Breeders’ Cup, a field of 12 was entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile.
A Grade 1 since 1991 - when it was known as the NYRA Mile - the Cigar Mile was downgraded by the North American Graded Stakes Committee for this year’s running. The field of 12 represents the largest since 1997, when 12 ran. It went with a full field of 14 in 1996.
Total handle and average handle per race during the recently concluded Finger Lakes meet in upstate New York were both up by approximately 20 percent compared to last year’s wagering numbers, according to figures distributed by the track. This comes at a time when many top-tier tracks are struggling to maintain their betting numbers.
Jockey Luis Quinonez is on the countdown to a major milestone of 4,000 career Thoroughbred wins. He entered the race week with 3,993 wins and is named on a number of horses at his longtime base of Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
“I can’t believe I’ve come this far,” said Quinonez, a 56-year-old native of Mexico.
Quinonez is Remington’s second all-time leading rider behind the retired Cliff Berry and has been a local fixture in some form or fashion since the track’s inaugural season.
