ARCADIA, Calif. - Apply, a 5-year-old gelding who finished fifth in the fifth race Jan. 21 for $7,000 to $8,000 claimers, tested in excess of the permitted level of total carbon dioxide, according to a ruling published by Santa Anita stewards March 31.
Apply finished 12 1/2 lengths behind race winner Big Wags, but had a post-race test of total carbon dioxide of 39.55 millimoles per liter of plasma. The permitted level is 37 millimoles.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bright Thought, winner of the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes on March 16 in his stakes debut, will be pointed to the Arlington Million in August, co-owner Alex Venneri and trainer Jorge Gutierrez said Friday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Humble Smarty has accomplished a good deal in his career, with four stakes wins, 17 victories and earnings of $494,883. But the 9-year-old has never won a route race on dirt, something he could be favored to do Sunday at Oaklawn in the $60,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Stakes.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – If they don’t stop soon, this might become a Grade 1 trend.
Keeneland carded 16 possible starters for the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes on opening weekend, and when the marquee race of the spring meet, the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes, is run next Saturday, April 13, there might also be 16 on the program, including two also-eligibles, because the maximum number of starters is 14.
[BLUE GRASS STAKES: Get Keeneland PPs, watch video previews]
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The stakes action for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct isn’t confined to Saturday’s Wood Memorial and Bay Shore.
On Sunday, five 3-year-olds will attempt to convince their trainers to try bigger and better things down the road when they contest a one-turn mile in the $75,000 Fit to Fight Stakes.
Chad Brown and Kiaran McLaughlin, who both had runners in the $1 million Wood Memorial, send out the likely top two choices in Integrity and Now and Then.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Five starts into her winter campaign, In the Stars was getting way too intense. She wanted to go fast. Her trainer wanted her to go slow.
“She was getting a little bit fresh in her races,” Richard Mandella explained. “She was trying to show a lot of speed and pull.”
The middle of February was the right time for a mental freshening, and after a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Buena Vista, Mandella gave In the Stars a seven-week break.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – There was a good chance that her loss as the favorite last October in the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland was going to be the last career start for Hungry Island.
“We waited a while after that race to see if we were going to breed her or keep on running her,” said Shug McGaughey, the Hall of Famer who trains Hungry Island for her breeder, Emory Hamilton. “I took her down to Payson Park for the winter, and honestly I’ve never seen her look better.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hear the Ghost, who was scratched from Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Thursday because of an injury detected in a knee, will be rested for four months before he returns to training, trainer and co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday.
Hollendorfer stressed that Hear the Ghost’s injury was minor and would not require surgery, but said the timing eliminates a spring campaign, including the Triple Crown races.
Freedom Choice was the sort of 2-year-old Quarter Horse who improved with each start in 2012. By December, he was the 2-1 favorite in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, but finished third, losing by a head to the filly Matabari.
Freedom Choice’s 3-year-old season began on a brighter note, with a win in a March 17 time trial for Sunday’s $205,900 El Primero Del Ano Derby at Los Alamitos. He may not be favored in the final, but has an excellent chance to win the 400-yard race.
There is strength in numbers, and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is taking full advantage of that in Sunday’s $50,000-added Golden Poppy at Golden Gate Fields. Hollendorfer is saddling four of the 11 runners in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares: Halo Dolly, Going for a Spin, Cathy’s Crunches, and Lady Aspen.
