Stronghold, the 2024 Santa Anita Derby winner, resumed a workout routine Thursday at Santa Anita. The 5-year-old drilled three furlongs in 39 seconds, his first breeze in more than three weeks as he gears up for his first start since August.
“He had an abscess pop out of his foot,” trainer Phil D’Amato said this week, explaining the January interruption. “He’s doing super now. It [the abscess] was just one of those things, and better it happened now than later. He’s come back really well.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – All of a sudden, trainer Peter Eurton is loaded with filly-mare turf stakes winners. Paradise Lake and Medoro won stakes this month at Santa Anita and Fair Grounds; Vibez aims for a second stakes victory on Saturday in the Grade 3 Megahertz at Santa Anita.
“I’ve had three quality dirt [males] at one time, but never three fillies like this,” Eurton said. “It definitely is exciting.”
The recent maiden race winners Robusta and Secured Freedom are intended starters in the $100,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile at Santa Anita on Feb. 7. The Lewis is the first two-turn stakes on dirt for open company at the track’s winter-spring meeting.
Robusta, a colt by Accelerate, led throughout his second start, a one-mile maiden race on Jan. 9. Owned by Calumet Farm, Robusta won by a half-length, a turnaround from a seventh-place finish in a field of 10 in a maiden race at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 22.
When Lonesome Road was gelded after two maiden races on turf at Colonial Downs last summer, trainer Michael Trombetta knew that he would have to run on dirt when he returned in the winter. He said he wasn’t concerned, though that’s much easier to say now.
A year ago at this time, Burnham Square was developing into a Kentucky Derby candidate, winning the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes five weeks after romping to a maiden victory. Burnham Square, who went on to win the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes, made it to the Kentucky Derby but had a tough trip and finished sixth.
As a new class of 3-year-old Kentucky Derby hopefuls will attempt the Holy Bull Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, Burnham Square has started gearing up for a 4-year-old campaign, the focus of which will be turf.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Napoleon Solo, unbeaten in two starts as a 2-year-old including a powerful victory in the Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct last October, is working his way toward his 3-year-old debut, which will likely come in the next four to six weeks.
On Wednesday, Napoleon Solo breezed a half-mile in 49.05 seconds at the Palm Meadows training center. It was Napoleon Solo’s third breeze of the year and first beyond three furlongs. Trainer Chad Summers said he caught Napoleon Solo’s last quarter in 24 seconds and had him galloping out six furlongs in 1:16.
Colloquial, unraced since winning the Lafayette Stakes last April at Keeneland, is on the comeback trail.
The lightly raced 4-year-old son of Vekoma worked a half-mile in 51.67 seconds on Jan. 23 at the Palm Beach Downs training center, his third breeze of the year and second at the track.
“He’s doing very well, the time off did him very well,” trainer George Weaver said.
Colloquial was scratched from the Grade 1 Woody Stephens last June at Saratoga after developing lameness in his right foreleg.
Turfway Park announced Wednesday that it will cancel this Friday and Saturday’s live racing cards due to continued subzero wind-chill temperatures forecast in Florence, Ky.
Turfway has not held races since Thursday, Jan. 22, and also lost several days of local training due to frigid temperatures and a snowstorm last weekend. The track races on Wednesday-Saturday schedule. Officials announced Tuesday that the Wednesday and Thursday cards were canceled, and then, after continuing to monitor conditions, announced the additional cancellations early Wednesday afternoon.
Keeneland will debut the interior hospitality spaces in its new paddock building during its upcoming spring meet in April.
Construction began in January 2024 on Keeneland’s new paddock and walking ring, adjacent paddock building, and administrative building. These $93 million in capital improvements marked the largest project undertaken by Keeneland since it opened for racing in 1936. It was also the first major construction project at the track since the Keeneland Library was built in 2002.
Bitterly cold weather that has enveloped Kentucky following a weekend winter storm has prompted Turfway Park to cancel its Wednesday and Thursday cards, with officials continuing to monitor conditions before making a determination on the rest of the week's races.
With snow and ice that accumulated across the state from Saturday through early Monday and hazardous road conditions still remaining, the National Weather Service is now forecasting wind-chill values to not rise above the single digits over the next 48 hours, dipping as low as minus-11 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday.
