Trainer Pat Devereux said he is hopeful he can still make the Kentucky Oaks with his stable star, Touch Magic, who has not breezed since Feb. 16. The daughter of Lion Heart incurred a setback with what Devereux describes as an inflamed hock.
“The Oaks is still in our plans if we can get her back to more steady work,” Devereux said. “We’re just proceeding with great caution.”
After breezing five furlongs in 1:02 here Monday, Proud Strike will get another chance to prove he belongs on the Triple Crown trail, trainer Steve Asmussen said. Proud Strike was the surprise early leader in the Feb. 23 Risen Star before fading to eighth, beaten less than four lengths by Ive Struck a Nerve.
“I thought he breezed back real well,” Asmussen said. “We’re nominating to the Rebel,” to be run March 16 at Oaklawn Park, “and if we don’t make that, we’ll probably just wait for the Louisiana Derby.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The day that unbeaten Gotham winner Vyjack won his maiden at Aqueduct, Clawback, the Jimmy Winkfield winner, was second, and Orb, the Fountain of Youth winner, finished fourth.
The favorite in that race, however, was Retreive, who finished third in that Nov. 10 race.
It took Retreive three more tries before winning his maiden, something he did by 8 3/4 lengths at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 22.
Jeremiah Englehart, trainer of Retreive, said he is leaning toward shipping that horse back to New York for the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes on April 6.
A minority ownership interest has been sold in Ive Struck a Nerve by Matt Bryant, the principal in Big Chief Racing, with Paul Braverman as his new partner. Braverman, 62, is a Boston investment manager who has owned horses in various partnerships for years and was one of the minority owners in Soldat, winner of the 2011 Fountain of Youth Stakes.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Alternation will launch his 5-year-old season Saturday at Oaklawn Park, when he breaks from post 10 in the Grade 3, $150,000 Razorback Handicap. He was one of 10 horses entered in the mile-and-a-sixteenth race drawn Wednesday. The field also includes Atigun, making his second start back since finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon, and Donoharm, a winner of his last five starts including two stakes this meet at Oaklawn.
NEW ORLEANS – Gantry will have a chance to reverse the trend of what has become a one-sided rivalry with Delaunay when they meet again Saturday in the richest sprint of the Fair Grounds meet, the $150,000 Duncan F. Kenner Stakes.
Gantry was the unofficial sprint champion at the 2011-12 Fair Grounds meet, capping a 3-for-3, all-stakes campaign by winning the Kenner. At the same time, Delaunay was still running for high-end claiming tags while frequently changing barns via the claim box in Maryland.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fort Larned will be the starting highweight and favorite in Saturday’s $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap, but trainer Nick Zito thinks he’s got a pretty good Fort of his own for the one-mile Grade 2 fixture – the multiple graded stakes winner Fort Loudon.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Clawback will be a deserving favorite in Saturday’s $100,000 Fred “Cappy” Capossela Stakes at Aqueduct, but the 3-year-old will not lack for serious competition.
Among the more interesting opponents is Whiskey Romeo, who went 3 for 3 last year and makes his 3-year-old debut in the Capossela Stakes at six furlongs.
Trained by Tony Dutrow, Whiskey Romeo won a maiden race at Parx Racing last September followed by stakes victories at Laurel Park in November and December.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Given the trouble he encountered the last time he ran, Sacred Ground deserves another chance when he runs in a $50,000 starter handicap Friday at Aqueduct.
Though he finished behind four of the same horses he faces in Friday’s mile-and-70-yard race, Sacred Ground took the worst of it from start to finish in that Feb. 10 heat.
Several strides out of the gate, Sacred Ground took a hard bump from the horse to his outside, and he was last and stuck on the inside for the first half-mile.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jamaican Smoke, whose promising 3-year-old campaign was abruptly cut short after she was scratched the morning of the Grade 1 Prioress last summer at Saratoga, will finally return to action under optional-claiming conditions in Friday’s $57,500 feature at Gulfstream Park.
