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.
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.
