HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Pat Byrne is expecting a big effort on Saturday off the bench from Take Charge Indy, who figures to go postward among the favorites in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap. Take Charge Indy has not started since finishing second behind Shackleford in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap on Nov. 23.
Take Charge Indy indicated his readiness for the race by working a bullet half-mile in 47.02 at Palm Meadows on Saturday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Unbridled Command has won his last five starts including the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. But despite such an imposing resume, the talented turf specialist figures to play not only second but third fiddle to Animal Kingdom and Point of Entry in Saturday’s Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap.
Unbridled Command quietly rose to the top of the 3-year-old turf division during the second half of 2012, coming out of New York-bred allowance races to win both the Grade 3 Saranac and the Hollywood Derby against open company during the latter part of the year.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Game On Dude equaled a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 116 with his win in Sunday’s $200,000 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita, a performance that will make him a strong favorite for the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 2.
The San Antonio Stakes was witnessed by Joe Torre, Game On Dude’s co-owner and the retired manager of the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Torre sat with trainer Bob Baffert for the race and admitted to a few anxious moments when Game On Dude was fighting for the lead with Basmati.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.- The new race week at Gulfstream Park will get off to a fast start when Discreet Dancer, the favorite in last year’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, and Grade 1 winner Sean Avery match up against four rivals in the second half of Wednesday’s early daily double, a $57,500 optional claiming dash to be decided at six furlongs.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – When they run for the big money, the cream, as they say, usually rises to the top. Such was the case Saturday when one trainer who is already in the Hall of Fame and another who is assured of a spot in that hallowed shrine sent out a pair of rising stars to take the Grade 3, $150,000 Florida Oaks and Grade 3, $150,000 Endeavour Stakes on Festival Preview Day at Tampa Bay Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sign, the promising 3-year-old filly bred and owned by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, has been disqualified from her victory in the Grade 2 Pocahontas Stakes on Oct. 28 at Churchill Downs after testing positive for the banned medication methocarbomol, a Class C drug found in a commonly used muscle relaxant known as Robaxin.
Jockey Navin Mangalee sustained a fractured right clavicle and minor concussion when his mount in Sunday’s sixth race at Golden Gate Fields, Thirsty for More, clipped heels with Blast the Cat and fell in the stretch.
Black Mango fell over the fallen horse, but his rider, Jose Delgadillo, escaped injury. Black Mango fractured his front right leg and had to be euthanized.
Mangalee was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland for a precautionary CT Scan. There was no report of any injuries sustained by Thirsty for More.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Game On Dude was challenged for the lead for the first six furlongs of the $200,000 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday, a speed duel that would have softened many runners.
Game On Dude was not bothered. The leading older horse in California, Game On Dude shook off a pesky Basmati and had no competition in the final furlong, winning the ninth stakes of his career in the Grade 2 San Antonio.
Trainer Jeff Mullins, whose horse Wilkinson finished second in Saturday's Arcadia Stakes at Santa Anita, has another contender for a turf stakes when Temple’s Door starts in Saturday’s $150,000 San Marcos Stakes over 1 1/4 miles.
“There is no option for him so you have to go,” Mullins said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Suggestive Boy will have a 2013 campaign primarily on turf after a successful start to the season in Saturday’s $152,000 Arcadia Stakes at Santa Anita.
A three-time Group 1 winner on turf in Argentina in 2011, Suggestive Boy won his first graded stakes in the United States in the Grade 2 Arcadia Stakes over a mile on turf.
