ARCADIA, Calif. – The 3-year-old colt Yorkshire Icon spent most of 2012 running at racecourses in and around Yorkshire, England, winning 2 of 9 starts.
Thursday, Yorkshire Icon can become a California icon when he makes his American debut in an optional claimer for 3-year-olds over a mile on turf at Santa Anita.
Trained by Dan Blacker for Jim Ford and Robert Maycock, Yorkshire Icon drew the rail in a field of seven and will be ridden by Hall of Famer Gary Stevens.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Despite an ominous forecast, there are signs that spring is on the horizon.
This is the last week of racing over Aqueduct’s inner track; the clocks move ahead one hour Sunday morning; and a south Florida shipper heads the allowance feature on Thursday’s nine-race program at Aqueduct.
Easter Gift, a graded-stakes-winning 3-year-old of 2012, heads a contentious, albeit compact, five-horse field entered in a $71,000 third-level allowance race going one mile.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oxbow is to make his next start in the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel at Oaklawn Park on March 16 and will be ridden by Mike Smith, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said on Tuesday.
Oxbow had been under consideration for the Louisiana Derby after winning the Grade 3 Lecomte at Fair Grounds in January and returning to New Orleans last month and finishing a close fourth in the Grade 2 Risen Star.
PHOENIX – Veteran rider Dennis Collins notched career Thoroughbred winner No. 2,000 when he guided Justcallheraggie to victory in the third race at Turf Paradise on Monday.
The 50-year-old reinsman put the 5-year-old mare right on the lead in the about 7 1/2-furlong grass test. She held a clear lead and continued to play keep away to the wire, winning by 1 1/4 lengths at 11-1. Justcallheraggie is owned by Harry Richardson and trained by Ty Garrett.
Up With the Birds, a determined quarter-length winner of the Black Gold Stakes on Saturday in his 3-year-old debut, is likely to start next at the Keeneland meet, trainer Malcolm Pierce said Monday.
Being an Ontario-bred, Up With the Birds, a Sam-Son Farms homebred, has the Queen’s Plate in July at Woodbine as a primary summer goal. But that does not mean he won’t have a chance at significant races in the interim. Pierce said Up With the Birds would be considered for three Keeneland stakes: the Transylvania on turf and the Blue Grass and Lexington on Polytrack.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Summer Applause, winner of Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Top Flight Handicap, could make her next start in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 12, trainer Chad Brown said Monday.
Summer Applause went back to south Florida by plane Sunday morning, returning to the Palm Meadows training center where she had been stabled since being transferred to Brown in late January.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Chad Brown said he’d been looking forward to starting Balance the Books in Sunday’s Grade 3 Palm Beach, which was won impressively by Rydilluc, but had to pass the race after Balance the Books took ill. The third-place finisher in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Balance the Books worked a bullet half-mile in 48.18 seconds over the main track at Palm Meadows on Sunday.
He will run next in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on March 23, Brown said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Big Blue Kitten will return to graded stakes company after registering a half-length optional claiming victory over Summer Front in Sunday’s co-feature. Big Blue Kitten, who had finished third in the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale in his 2013 debut, circled the field while rallying around the final bend under Javier Castellano before wearing down the pacesetting Decisive Moment for his second win in three tries at the meet.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Rudy Rodriguez’s decision to leave Vyjack in New York this winter had everything to do with the gelding’s state of mind.
So, while Rodriguez took about a dozen horses to sunny and sometimes-warm southern Florida – including his top 3-year-old filly, My Happy Face – Vyjack was left behind to endure the harsh winter weather of Queens and Aqueduct’s overly scrutinized inner track.
“He’s a little mental – that was the main reason,” Rodriguez said Sunday. “We didn’t want to go to Gulfstream. Aqueduct is like a private training center.”
