LEXINGTON, Ky. – Magical Moon has been scratched from the Grade 1, $500,000 Ashland Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland after being assigned the far outside post in a field of 14 and will run instead in the Grade 2, $150,000 Beaumont Stakes here a week from Sunday, April 14.
Magical Moon, a good third here in the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades last fall after breaking from the far outside post, was to be ridden by Rosie Napravnik in the Ashland, which goes at 1 1/16 miles on Polytrack.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - All three turf races in Friday’s Rainbow 6 sequence at Gulfstream Park will be taken off the grass and moved to the main course due to heavy overnight rains and a forecast for more rain later in the afternoon.
There is a carryover of nearly $2 million going into Friday’s card, and the pool is expected to climb as high as $7 million or $8 million by the time it closes before the eighth race. There is a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool on Friday, closing day of the meet.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Handicappers throughout the country will be burning the midnight oil on Thursday, trying to come up with the winning combination for Friday's Rainbow 6 at Gulfstream Park.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Diamond Joe seeks his third straight stakes win of the meet and preps for a likely appearance later this month in the $75,000 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes as he headlines a field of eight in the $20,000-guaranteed Dowd Mile Stakes at Fonner Park on Saturday.
The year's first stakes event in Ohio takes place Saturday at Beulah Park, and as is often the case, trainer Tim Hamm looks to be holding a pair of aces.
Hamm sends out the entry of Significant Bling and Blazing Bling in the $50,000 Royal North for 3-year-old Ohio-bred fillies. The Hamm entry is 2-5 on the morning line, and the odds of one of the fillies being selected Ohio's 2-year-old filly of the year for 2012 are about the same. That honor will be announced Friday, April 12, at the annual awards dinner of the Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners.
African Rose can become Sunland Park's winningest horse of the meet Saturday if she picks off her fourth race of the local season in the $50,000 Czaria. To do so, she will have to defeat Santa Anita invader Scary Ride and recent Turf Paradise stakes winner Jaws n' Paws in the six-furlong race for fillies and mares that also drew Pyrite On My Mind.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The attorney representing embattled trainer Rudy Rodriguez claims inaction by the New York Racing Association led to the possible tampering with a filly who ran on March 10 at Aqueduct and was subsequently found to have an excess level of the drug Flunixin in her post-race sample.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tour Guide will make his first start for Calumet Farm on Saturday in the $75,000 Bachelor for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park. His recent purchase fills a void for Calumet, which has a leading Kentucky Derby prospect in Oxbow.
“We didn’t have a 3-year-old sprinter, or horse that we thought would run short,” said D. Wayne Lukas, the primary trainer for Calumet. “We think this horse could be a really nice miler, and we’ve seen nothing to dispel that notion. At this point, we think we made a really nice buy, and we’re very, very happy with him.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Hear the Ghost, the winner of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 9, will miss Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby because of injury, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Thursday afternoon.
The injury was detected after Hear the Ghost trained at Betfair Hollywood Park on Thursday. Hollendorfer did not disclose the nature of the injury.
MIAMI – Despite going into the meet without a signed purse contract with the horsemen and facing the prospect of racing head to head with his crosstown neighbor Gulfstream Park beginning July 1, Calder general manager John Marshall was decidedly upbeat about the 2013 Calder meet, which opens Saturday with a 12-race program featuring the $250,000 Calder Derby. The April 6 opening is the earliest in the history of the track.
