INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Marty Jones is not one to oversell his horses, which is why the emphatic enthusiasm he displayed regarding My Sweet Addiction following her win against maidens on Saturday is worth noting.
My Sweet Addiction overcame a rail draw and got up late under jockey Mike Smith to win going six furlongs, a distance likely short of what Jones believes will be optimum for this daughter of Tiznow.
The 10-race Summit of Speed program will run in direct conflict with a live card to be held just across town at Gulfstream on Saturday, with first post at both tracks scheduled for 12:50 p.m. It will mark the first direct conflict between the two south Florida Thoroughbred facilities this summer.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Compari, the 7-year-old multiple stakes winner, was a dull fourth in an allowance race over six furlongs on turf on May 19, his first start of 2013.
Trainer Marty Jones said on Wednesday that he is ready to forget that race and is looking toward Compari’s return in a $62,000 allowance race over a mile on turf on Friday.
“I’d like to see him get back into his form,” Jones said. “The last race was pretty disappointing. Hopefully, the real Compari will show up.”
MIAMI – Marty Wolfson is scheduled to move his entire 25-horse stable from Calder to Gulfstream Park on Sunday. Less than 24 hours earlier, he’ll run 11 of those horses in stakes races on Calder’s Summit of Speed program, including five in the Grade 1 Princess Rooney Handicap.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When trainer Kiaran McLaughlin first saw Alpha shortly after he arrived back in the United States following the winter in Dubai, he was taken aback.
“Wow! He looks great,” McLaughlin texted Simon Crisford, the racing manager for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing.
Three months later, McLaughlin is still raving about how well Alpha looks, and he hopes that translates into success in Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It has been 25 years since trainer Craig Lewis won the 1988 Hollywood Gold Cup with Cutlass Reality.
The 1988 Hollywood Gold Cup was rightfully billed as a matchup between two Kentucky Derby winners – 1986 winner Ferdinand and 1987 winner Alysheba. Ferdinand held off Alysheba in an epic running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the fall of 1987, but Alysheba beat Ferdinand in the Santa Anita Handicap and San Bernardino Handicap in early 1988.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer David Jacobson entered Wednesday’s card just three wins shy of Todd Pletcher’s record 40 victories for a Belmont spring/summer meet.
Jacobson, whose 144 starters were 44 more than his nearest competitor, could move closer to that record Friday when he runs Sure Route in the $100,000 Magnolia Jackson Stakes, which goes as race 3 on a nine-race program that begins at 3 p.m. Eastern. The Magnolia Jackson, for fillies and mares, is run at 6 1/2 furlongs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Nick Nosowenko, discouraged after a workout by Rackman did not go according to plan last Sunday, had said his gelding no longer was under consideration for the Queen’s Plate. But Nosowenko has reconsidered and will send out Rackman for Sunday’s 1 1/4-mile, $1 million showpiece for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds. which as of Wednesday was expected to attract a field of 12.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Jockey Lindey Wade has an understanding of racing that belies his young age of 22. As the son of two jockeys who has already made a comeback from devastating injuries sustained in a 2007 spill, he has an intimate knowledge of the ups and downs of the sport. So when Wade, who is likely to win his first Lone Star Park title on Saturday, calls his meet a “revival,” the sentiment flows from a deep place.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Multiple Grade 1 winner Dullahan, with an eye toward a repeat bid in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, will make his first start since traveling to Dubai this spring in the Arlington Handicap on July 13.
