Mon, 03/11/2013 - 15:17

Gulfstream Park notes: Cross Traffic stands out

Barbara D. Livingston
Jockey Luis Saez will likely miss the remainder of the meet.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The 1:35.17 clocking Discreet Dancer posted winning the Gulfstream Park Handicap on Saturday turned out to be a magic number this weekend. His stablemate Cross Traffic posted the exact same time winning Sunday’s $54,500 co-feature by 7 1/2 lengths to remain undefeated in two starts for trainer Todd Pletcher. A 4-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song, Cross Traffic is owned by Gold Mark Farm.

Mon, 03/11/2013 - 15:11

OBS Championship Stakes: Spring Venture edges Casse stablemate Spring in the Air

Spring Venture and Spring in the Air both had very useful efforts Monday when the Mark Casse stablemates finished one-two in the $100,000 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Championship for 3-year-old fillies in Ocala, Fla. Spring Venture finished three-quarters of a length ahead of her more heralded stablemate, finishing the 1 1/16-mile race in 1:44.80 over the SafeTrack synthetic surface.

Mon, 03/11/2013 - 14:50

Santa Anita: My Miss Aurelia primed for 2013 debut

Barbara D. Livingston
My Miss Aurelia, the 2011 champion juvenile filly, will make her 2013 debut Saturday in either the Grade 1 Santa Margarita or the Grade 3 Azeri.

ARCADIA, Calif. – My Miss Aurelia is looking to celebrate her fourth birthday in style. The question is where the birthday party will be held.

A champion at 2 and a near-champion at 3, My Miss Aurelia is scheduled to begin her 4-year-old campaign Saturday – exactly four years after she was born – though whether she stays at Santa Anita for the Grade 1, $300,000 Santa Margarita Stakes or travels to Oaklawn for the Grade 3, $150,000 Azeri Stakes had yet to be determined, trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday.

Mon, 03/11/2013 - 14:13

Gulfstream Park: Capt. Candyman Can may try another stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – One of the horses trainer Ian Wilkes plans to run here at Gulfstream Park before the end of the meet is Capt. Candyman Can, a Grade 1 winner, who could make his next start in the Sir Shackelton Handicap on March 30.

Capt. Candyman Can, winner of the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at 3, is coming off a disappointing performance in Tampa Bay Downs’s Super Stakes on Feb. 23, when he made his first start in nearly 11 months.

Mon, 03/11/2013 - 13:17

Gulfstream Park: And Why Not looks to end nine-race losing streak

Barbara D. Livingston
And Why Not will try to end a nine-race losing streak while making her 4-year-old debut Wednesday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A year ago, trainer Michael Matz was preparing And Why Not to make her 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks. On Wednesday, Matz will bring And Why Not back from a similar layoff, still hoping to win her entry-level allowance condition in the afternoon’s $54,500 main event, to be decided by a field of eight older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

Mon, 03/11/2013 - 13:17

Gulfstream Park: Fort Larned not giving Wilkes cause for alarm

Eleanor Gustafson
Fort Larned, riderless since he stumbled as the starting gate opened, is ahead of the field in the Gulfstream Park Handicap.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ian Wilkes summed up Saturday’s shocking turn of events, when Fort Larned stumbled badly leaving the gate and lost jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. immediately after the start of the start of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap, in just eight words.

“I think we may have dodged a bullet,” Wilkes said Monday morning after reporting that all seemed well with Fort Larned in the aftermath of what could have been a disastrous situation for the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner.

Sun, 03/10/2013 - 20:09

Santa Anita: Rumor keeps Mandella hot with Las Flores score

Benoit & Associates
Rumor (left), ridden by Mike Smith, pulls away from favored Teddy's Promise to win the Grade 3 Las Flores on Sunday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Richard Mandella continued to play a hot hand at Santa Anita on Sunday when he sent out Rumor for a mild upset win in the Grade 3, $100,250 Las Flores Stakes for female sprinters, giving the Hall of Fame trainer his seventh win out of his last nine runners.

Always quick with a quip, Mandella said his recent success was because “some of these young guys thought I was buried, but I thought I’d show them.”

Rumor, finally earning her first stakes win, added to a strike rate of nearly 33 percent this meet for Mandella.

Sun, 03/10/2013 - 18:27

Aqueduct: Dominguez hoping to be exercising horses in two weeks

NYRA
Ramon Dominguez (right) talks with Mike Luzzi on Sunday during his first visit to Aqueduct since being injured on Jan. 18.

Jockey Ramon Dominguez, injured in a spill at Aqueduct on Jan. 18, said Sunday he hopes to get clearance to begin exercising horses in the mornings in two weeks.

Dominguez, the reigning three-time Eclipse Award-winning rider, visited Aqueduct Sunday for the first time since his spill at that track, in which he suffered a fractured skull.

Dominguez told the New York Racing Association that his next appointment with his doctors is March 25, at which time he hopes to get clearance to begin getting on horses in the mornings

Sun, 03/10/2013 - 13:56

Santa Anita Derby rematch looms between Hear the Ghost and Flashback

Barbara D. Livingston
Corey Nakatani and Hear the Ghost return to the winner's circle after upsetting the Grade 2 San Felipe on Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Hear the Ghost, who successfully stretched out around two turns when winning the Grade 2, $300,000 San Felipe Stakes on Saturday here at Santa Anita, came out of the race in good condition and is likely to make his next start in the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 6, his trainer and co-owner, Jerry Hollendorfer, said Sunday morning.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Sun, 03/10/2013 - 11:46

Fort Larned fine after stumbling and losing rider in Gulfstream Park Handicap

Eleanor Gustafson
A riderless Fort Larned streaks into the stretch of the Gulfstream Park Handicap while Discreet Dancer leads the remainder of the field en route to his official victory.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Ian Wilkes reported  Sunday morning that Fort Larned was doing well less than 12 hours after stumbling badly and losing his rider leaving the starting gate in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.

“He’s walking good this morning,” said Wilkes shortly before dawn Sunday at Palm Meadows. “The cuts he sustained when stumbling are not that bad, just superficial. We’ll know more in a couple of days.”