Santa Anita will close its infield training track later this month to replace the existing dirt surface with a synthetic surface, the track announced in late October.
The project is expected to take two months, weather permitting.
The training track is popular with trainers, who often send runners for daily exercise, including workouts, in lieu of using the main track.
ARCADIA, Calif. — Veteran jockey Joe Bravo is moving from Southern California to Florida in coming days.
Bravo said on Thursday that a desire to be closer to his family and more racing opportunities were factors in his decision.
“I want to move back and be close to them,” Bravo said of his family. “I’ve got a house in South Florida. I love California racing, but I have four days off.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – River Tiber, the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Friday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita, was scratched from the race Friday morning, the Breeders’ Cup reported.
The official reason given for the scratch is trainer withdrawal. Attempts to reach trainer Aidan O’Brien were unsuccessful early Friday morning.
O’Brien will still have the likely favorite in the Juvenile Turf in Unquestionable, who was the 4-1 morning-line second choice. Ryan Moore, who was named on River Tiber, will replace Frankie Dettori on Unquestionable.
Victories Thursday by Artemis Girl ($103.50) in race 5 and Bertrille ($202.50) in race 9 - split divisions of a turf maiden for New York-bred juvenile fillies - resulted in there being carryovers in both the late pick five and pick six into Friday’s Aqueduct card.
The late pick five, which on Friday encompasses races 6 through 10, will have a $147,582 carryover. The pick six, which includes races 5 through 10, will have a $37,682 carryover.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The trainer Kelsey Danner thinks her first Breeders’ Cup starter, Shards, can do more than pick up some pieces Friday in the $1 million Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Shards needed defections from the main body of the field to make the Juvenile Turf Sprint, but he belongs. Shards was a sharp Colonial Downs maiden turf sprint winner in his third start before weaving his way through traffic to finish third, beaten a neck, in the Indian Summer Stakes, a Keeneland turf sprint Oct. 8.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Let the games begin.
That’s probably the prevailing thought among most, if not all, horsemen as the countdown to this year’s Breeders’ Cup moved into its final stages when daylight dawned on a picture-perfect morning for training Thursday at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Richard Dutrow Jr. believed he’d have a big horse in the barn again. He just didn’t know it would be this soon.
The man who trained Big Brown to win two-thirds of the Triple Crown in 2008 and Saint Liam to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2005, is back in the spotlight with White Abarrio, who just may go off favored in Saturday’s $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
It comes just seven months after Dutrow returned from a 10-year suspension handed him by the New York Racing Commission for a history of repeated violations.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It takes time and effort to parse the form of dozens of international Breeders’ Cup runners. These horses are all over the Saturday card. The time has been spent, the effort put forth. Here’s how it looks, and let’s hope it was worth the work.
Classic
International runners in main body: 2
Win chance: Moderate
Contenders: Ushba Tesoro
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tuesday morning outside the international quarantine facility tucked into the northwest corner of the Santa Anita backstretch, the great English photographer Edward Whitaker watched a couple European horses walk through the chain-link fence gate and down toward the racetrack for their first morning training since arriving Saturday night in America. Whitaker has been working Breeders’ Cups for decades.
“This is the best group of European horses that have ever come,” he said.
Anecdotal? Sure. Accurate? Possible and to be determined this weekend.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Late on Sunday morning at Santa Anita, War Like Goddess bounced off the track in the manner of a frisky 2-year-old more than a 6-year-old mare with eight stakes wins. It was not the first time she displayed such enthusiasm.
“She’s a little bit of a challenge to train,” trainer Bill Mott said over the weekend. “She wants to be a strong galloper.”
