ARCADIA, Calif. – Like a couple of hawks, Flashback and Goldencents have circled their prey for months at Santa Anita.
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DRF Past Performances
ARCADIA, Calif. – The success this year of the 3-year-old filly Sarach is reflective of trainer Richard Mandella’s season at Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting: The results are well ahead of expectations.
Through Wednesday, Mandella had 11 wins from 34 starters since the meeting began Dec. 26. Sarach has won twice – a maiden race and an allowance race. She makes her stakes debut in Saturday’s $75,000 China Doll Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over a mile on turf.
Owned by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Sarach is a top contender in a strong field of 12.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fort Larned has spent the last four months vacationing in south Florida. Now it’s finally time for the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner to get back to work.
Fort Larned begins his 2013 campaign, one that will be designed to get him back to Santa Anita to defend his title in the BC Classic, in Saturday’s $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap. The Grade 2 race will be decided at one mile and drew a field of six that also includes top contenders Fort Loudon, Swagger Jack, and Discreet Dancer. Outsiders Gourmet Dinner and Decaf Again complete the lineup.
The move to the main track at Aqueduct, originally scheduled for March 14, now will not happen until March 20, according to a notice on the Sunday overnight.
Races in the condition book scheduled to be run at seven furlongs from March 14-17 will be carded and run at six furlongs. Entries for the Uncle Mo Stakes, scheduled for seven furlongs, were to be taken Friday at six furlongs and one mile, the latter meaning the race would be run around two turns over the inner track.
PHOENIX – If E Z Kitty is to retain her status as the leading female at Turf Paradise, she’ll need all her versatility as she faces a tough challenge in Saturday’s $35,000 Mesa Handicap. A field of eight is entered in the 6 1/2-furlong event.
Owned by Mike Chambers, John Xitco, and Dan Agnew, and trained by Chambers, E Z Kitty continues her superb form. Before coming here, the 5-year-old mare was a multiple winner at Emerald Downs in 2011 and 2012, including a stakes win last spring. She’s since flourished, and it’s her versatility that seems key.
You can hear the excitement in trainer Todd Pletcher’s voice just talking about Verrazano, his undefeated and still untested Kentucky Derby prospect, who’ll take center stage when making his stakes debut Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in the $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby.
[DERBY WATCH: Top 20 Kentucky Derby contenders with odds and video]
Saturday’s $50,000-added Camilla Urso at Golden Gate Fields promises to be as difficult a race to win as it is to handicap. The six-furlong Tapeta sprint attracted a field of eight fillies and mares, each of whom has a legitimate shot at winning.
Rowdy Gal and I’m Tops make their first start in nearly a year. Rowdy Gal beat I’m Tops by a nose in a Golden Gate allowance sprint last March 22, the last time they ran.
NEW ORLEANS – When a trainer has a horse so heavily favored to the extent that a targeted race might lack sufficient opposition to actually fill, that trainer will sometimes enter another horse or two to insure that the race goes. And then the trainer might scratch those “fillers” after the race has been safely printed on the program.
