ARCADIA, Calif. - Eblouissante, a half-sister to 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, is expected to be part of a 22-horse group that trainer John Shirreffs will ship to Belmont Park in New York later this month.
Shirreffs said on Tuesday that his Belmont Park runners will leave California on April 22, and that more horses could be sent later.
Trainer Nick Sloan enjoyed his first stakes victory when Luscious Lonna, a $6,250 claim 13 months earlier, scored a front-running $26.80 upset in Sunday’s Golden Poppy on the turf here. Luscious Lonna defated 12 filly-mare rivals, including four from the Jerry Hollendorfer barn.
“Running on soft turf and against Halo Dolly was a little bit scary,” said Sloan, who joked that Hollendorfer had more runners in the race than he has in his barn.
Control Seeker, Positive Response, and Hudson Landing, the first three finishers in a Saturday allowance prep on turf, came out of the race perfectly primed for the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile on April 27.
“We’re looking pretty good,” said Control Seeker’s trainer, Keith Nations.
“I liked the way he finished.”
Control Seeker won last year’s Joseph Grace on the turf at Santa Rosa, and Nations thinks he is better on the turf than the main track.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Suggestive Boy, the top turf miler in California this year, will miss an expected start in Friday’s $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland because of a splint bone injury, trainer Ron McAnally said on Tuesday.
McAnally described the injury as “nothing too serious.”
“He’s got a little tiny splint and he can’t make the race in Kentucky,” McAnally said. “It’s very minor. We X-rayed it and it wasn’t displaced. We’ll need about a week or 10 days and we can re-X-ray him and see how it looks.
Four allowance races are sprinkled through a stronger-than-usual Thursday program at Aqueduct, beginning with race 2, a first-level route at 1 1/8 miles that attracted some well-bred runners.
Baker Street, a Street Cry colt who is a half-brother to dual stakes winner Global Power, is the one to catch from the rail for Kiaran McLaughlin. The 4-year-old colt made a pair of promising starts on the inner track this year, capped by a game runner-up finish when stretched out to 1 1/16 miles.
It’s the best of times for Thoroughbred racing, with Derby fever burning high.
At Golden Gate Fields, the road to 3-year-old glory begins Thursday with the first 2-year-old race of the year, which attracted six fillies competing in a two-furlong race.
Three of the runners, including the two likely favorites, will be the first runner for their sires – millionaires Idiot Proof (Frisco Fog) and In Summation (Yes), and the unraced Brave Cat (La Tonga).
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ex Lover has not raced in a year, and at age 6 she is the veteran of the field. Thursday at Santa Anita, the old flame will try again to bang out the first condition.
Ex Lover cannot be ignored in the race-7 feature, a one-mile turf race for first-condition fillies and mares. Ex Lover’s most recent start was last April 22, yet trainer Blake Heap and jockey Tyler Baze both say she is ready to fire first start back.
“On the dirt, her works are bad,” Heap said. “On the grass, she has some nice works.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’s Canadian International and E.P. Taylor Stakes, which have been part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series since its inception in 2007, will not have Win and You’re In status this year.
The Breeders’ Cup announced its 67-race list of Win and You’re In races on Monday, and while Woodbine will host five of the events, the Canadian International and E.P. Taylor were noticeable by their absence.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – While 12 is the Keeneland record for most wins by an owner at a meet, the track offers no such record for most starts.
This spring, Ken and Sarah Ramsey appear destined to smash the record for wins – and hardly anyone could argue with Keeneland if it decided to just go ahead and declare the Ramseys’ number of starts a new mark, too.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – There is no bad pick Thursday in the $100,000 Carousel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. A case can be made for each of the nine fillies and mares in the six-furlong sprint that continues the Racing Festival of the South.
The Carousel has drawn a mix of proven stakes horses and runners in career form. Beat the Blues is the race’s defending champ, while Good Deed has invaded from Fair Grounds off a win in the Mardi Gras Handicap.
