One More Bid, the winner of the Grade 2 Mathis Mile at Santa Anita in December 2022, died suddenly at Santa Anita on Thursday, according to Jeff Blea, California’s equine medical director.
A necropsy will be performed in an attempt to determine a cause, Blea indicated in a text message on Friday.
Dreamfyre, a two-time Grade 3 winner who was beaten for the first time when ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 3, returned to trainer O.J. Jauregui’s stable at Golden Gate Fields on Thursday following a three-week rest.
Dreamfyre will resume training in coming days for a 2024 campaign.
“I don’t have anything in mind,” Jauregui said. “When she’s ready, I’ll figure out a spot to run.
“I think it’s better to see how sharp she is.”
Doug O’Neill won the $300,000 Zia Park Derby on Tuesday with Two Rivers Over. The horse has since returned home to Southern California.
“He looks phenomenal,” O’Neill said Thursday. “He’s back at Santa Anita. He looks really, really well.”
Two Rivers Over was a two-length winner of the Zia Derby, covering the 1 1/16 miles in a track-record-equaling time of 1:41.87. For his effort in the race, which was hand-timed, he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.
Flying Connection, who won the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks on Tuesday, will likely make her next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 La Brea at Santa Anita, trainer Todd Fincher said Thursday. The seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies is Dec. 26.
“That’s what we’re looking at,” Fincher said.
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.
