ARCADIA, Calif. – The expectations for Lady of Shamrock this year reach the top of the female turf division in the United States. Anything less than an appearance in the season-ending race in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita in November will be a disappointment.
“She’s one of leading horses, if not our lead horse,” trainer John Sadler said on Thursday.
MIAMI – Cool Blue Red Hot’s career took on a new look after trainer Angel Penna Jr. switched him to the turf for the first time earlier this winter. That look that may be good enough to earn Cool Blue Red Hot his first graded stakes victory Saturday at Calder in the Miami Mile Handicap.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’s Thoroughbred meeting is getting off to a late start this year, and the compressed 133-day schedule presents a different scenario for Steve Lym, racing secretary and a director of racing.
“I’ve tried to write a few long races early in the book, but I still tried to write as many short races as I could,” Lym said. “I think some of our guys are still a little ways off from going a mile and a sixteenth, or seven-eighths.
Saturday night’s $200,000 Sugar Maple Stakes at Charles Town became a wide-open affair after trainer Bob Baffert confirmed Thursday that even-money favorite Book Review would scratch from the seven-furlong race after developing an elevated white-blood cell count upon her arrival in West Virginia.
“She won’t run,” Baffert said, noting that the filly had to be treated with antibiotics.
Her scratch reduces the Sugar Maple field to six, and though Holiday Soiree and Dance to Bristol were cross-entered in other spots, they will both be running here.
Shesafrigidcat seeks her first career stakes victory when she heads a field of eight 3-year-old Nebraska-breds going six furlongs in the fillies division of the $25,000 Fonner Park Special Stakes on Saturday.
Shesafrigidcat, trained by Chuck Turco, won her maiden locally on March 22. She returned April 6 against open company in the Pepsi Stakes, where she made a good run at the leaders into the far turn but weakened into the stretch and was fourth, beaten six lengths by the multiple stakes-placed Portales. The return to statebred company makes Shesafrigidcat a solid threat.
Pyrite Green has the perfect come-from-behind style to win the $50,000 Howard B. Noonan at Beulah Park on Saturday afternoon.
Six of the 13 entrants in the six-furlong event for 3-year-old Ohio-bred horses won their last race in front-running fashion. The morning-line favorite and only filly in the race, Blazing Bling, is also usually on or very near the lead.
Trained by Miguel Feliciano, Pyrite Green has won 2 of 4 starts this year, all at Tampa Bay Downs in optional claiming events.
Some of the quickest fillies on the grounds will line up Saturday night for the $50,000 Hallowed Dreams Stakes at Evangeline Downs.
Appropriately enough, the feature is named for a remarkable filly who won her first 16 career starts and 23 of her first 24, most in front-running fashion while campaigning in southern Louisiana from 1999 to 2001.
OPELOUSAS, La. – Lattin Devil stalked the early pace before challenging and drawing away in impressive fashion Wednesday evening at Evangeline Downs to capture the opening night’s featured $50,000 Inaugural Stakes in track-record time. Hardrock Eleven rallied to finish second, followed by fellow late-runner Successful Story.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - My Happy Face, a 3-year-old filly, has been galloping for about two weeks since returning to trainer Rudy Rodriguez’s barn after a brief stint at a clinic in Kentucky.
Rodriguez said that My Happy Face would likely start breezing in May, but he wasn’t sure when she would return to the races. The Black-Eyed Susan had been mentioned by owner Michael Dubb as a possible start, but it doesn’t seem likely she would be ready in time to make that race.
“We’re happy and excited to have her back,” Rodriguez said. “Hopefully, we can have fun with her this summer.”
