Jockeys Tiago Pereira and Ramon Vazquez will serve three-day suspensions later this month after losing appeals of rulings issued during the Del Mar summer meeting.
Pereira and Vazquez appealed the summertime penalties to the California Horse Racing Board, but were rejected. Pereira’s suspension covers racing on Dec. 26 and 29-30, while Vazquez, currently riding at Oaklawn Park, has been suspended from Dec. 29-31.
Ruby Nell, a two-time stakes winner this fall, is expected to start in the $100,000 Lady of Shamrock Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 31 instead of the Grade 1 American Oaks at 1 1/4 miles on Dec. 26, trainer Richard Mandella said Sunday.
Mandella said the shorter distance of the Lady of Shamrock Stakes has greater appeal than the $300,000 American Oaks. Both races are for 3-year-old fillies.
“I’m more likely to wait” for the Lady of Shamrock Stakes, he said.
Trainer Ed Moger Jr., a mainstay in Northern California for decades, will have a majority of his 40-horse stable at Santa Anita in Southern California this winter for the first time.
Moger said on Monday that the decision was prompted partially by a severe purse cut at Golden Gate Fields, announced earlier this month that takes effect with the opening of the track’s winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26.
Glengarry was back at his Oaklawn base by mid-afternoon Saturday following his close-up, second-place finish to Otto the Conqueror in the $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park. It was the first career loss for Glengarry, who was making his two-turn debut after winning the first three starts of his career, including the Bowman Mill at Keeneland.
“He came back out of the race great,” trainer Doug Anderson said. “He was tired. He put out 100 percent. He tried every step of the way.”
Closing Remarks had the best season of her career in 2023, winning four graded turf stakes at Del Mar and Santa Anita.
The 5-year-old mare’s career is not done.
Trainer Carla Gaines said on Friday that Closing Remarks will remain in training next year at the insistence of owner and breeder John Haris.
“He’s very much a racing fan,” Gaines said. “He wants to continue running her.”
Closing Remarks has won 7 of 25 starts and earned $999,820. In 2023, she won 4 of 10 starts and earned $601,000.
New York-based trainer David Jacobson swept into Oaklawn Park on opening weekend and won with his first two starters on the first card of the meet Dec. 8. He’ll attempt to keep his momentum going Sunday with Kingdom.
Kingdom will represent the barn in the fifth race, a $50,000 starter allowance for 3-year-olds and up over six furlongs. He enters off a third-place finish in a Dec. 1 starter allowance at Aqueduct.
“I like the race for him,” Jacobson said. “I like that there appears to be very little speed, which he’s full of.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Manny Franco, who will end 2023 as the leading jockey on the New York Racing Association circuit in wins, will begin 2024 on the sidelines, serving a three-day careless riding suspension handed him by the stewards.
Franco, who waived his right of appeal, will serve the days on Jan. 1, 4, and 5 for his ride on Rollin in Dough, who won the sixth race on Dec. 9 at Aqueduct. Rollin in Dough lugged in during the stretch run, causing Romero Maragh to steady slightly aboard The Mighty Don, who ultimately finished last.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Lone Rock, the top-class marathon runner who was retired over the summer, is on a waiting list to join his fellow retirees at Old Friends in Georgetown, Ky., according to his longtime trainer, Robertino Diodoro.
Lone Rock, a multiple Grade 2 winner of $1.4 million, raced some at Oaklawn during his career and in December 2021 captured the local Tinsel Stakes. He now lives on a farm not far from the track.
Old Friends admits approved horses as space permits, said Barbara Fossum, who is the organization’s horse intake manager.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Dr B, who won the Grade 3 Go for Wand Stakes here Dec. 2, is likely to run in the $150,000 Interborough Stakes on Jan. 20 and then be retired, her trainer, Butch Reid, said Friday.
Reid and part-owner Chuck Zacney had indicated the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park in February was a goal in 2024, but in order to get to a top-flight stallion she will be retired before February, Reid said.
Dr B, who won the Go for Wand two years in a row, has a record of 6-7-2 from 22 starts and earnings of $583,240.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Linda Rice appears to have found herself another stakes-caliber female sprinter in Ain’t Broke, who was visually impressive winning a second-level allowance Thursday at Aqueduct.
Ain’t Broke, a 4-year-old daughter of Dialed In, made an eye-catching last-to-first move from the three-eighths pole to the quarter pole, then sustained her run to the wire to win by five lengths.
