It’s been a pretty good week for trainer Kelly Breen.
On Tuesday, he welcomed his third child into the world as his wife Melissa gave birth to a baby boy who has been named Declan Richard.
On Friday, Breen got the report from his New York assistant that 2011 Belmont Stakes winner Ruler On Ice burned up the Belmont training track by working five furlongs in 57.90 seconds. Ruler On Ice worked out of the gate and in company with Coco Ecolo, who was timed in 59.27 seconds for the same distance.
Cheery, who established herself as one of the top filly and mare sprinters at the Oaklawn meet with her win in the $60,000 American Beauty in January, is being pointed for the track’s $100,000 Carousel, said trainer Al Stall Jr. The six-furlong race is the richest offering for the local division, and it will be run on April 11.
Santa Anita has terminated a promotion paying a 20 percent bonus to ontrack customers who hit the pick six.
The promotion began Jan. 1 and ended Thursday, at the end of February. Track President George Haines said the track paid out $20,000 through the bonus, which was funded by the racetrack, the horsemen’s purse account, and promotional money available through the California Marketing Committee.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Kelli Got Frosty ran into the buzz saw known as Princess of Sylmar when she finished second in the Busher Stakes here last month.
There is no one of that ilk entered against Kelli Got Frosty in Sunday’s $75,000 Beru Stakes at Aqueduct. The Beru, run at a mile and 70 yards, is restricted to 3-year-old fillies who have not won an open stakes race. Kelli Got Frosty is a two-time stakes winner against New York-bred competition.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Saturday’s card at Aqueduct featured 12 horses in the Gotham Stakes hoping to earn their way to this year’s Kentucky Derby. Sunday’s card features a graduate of the 2012 Derby hoping to jump-start his once promising career.
Went the Day Well, who was beaten only 2 1/2 lengths when fourth to I’ll Have Another in last year’s Kentucky Derby, returns from a 10-month layoff in a second-level allowance race for New York-breds going a mile and 70 yards at Aqueduct.
Eblouissante, the unbeaten half-sister to 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, worked a half-mile in 48.60 seconds at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday and remains a possibility for the $300,000 Santa Margarita Stakes on March 16, trainer John Shirreffs said.
The Grade 1 Santa Margarita is run over 1 1/8 miles for fillies and mares.
“It’s still possible,” Shirreffs said. “We won’t know until she goes five-eighths [in a workout] and we see how she gallops out.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – In his first winter of riding in California full time, jockey Julien Leparoux has found the dream mount on top 3-year-old Flashback.
The winner of the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes by 6 1/4 lengths in his stakes debut at Santa Anita on Feb. 2, the undefeated Flashback will start as a favorite in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles March 9. The race is a prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 6.
“We got lucky to pick up the horse in my first winter,” Leparoux said at Santa Anita on Friday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It appears the imposing presence of reigning Breeders’ Cup Classic champion Fort Larned will keep the starting lineup to a minimum in next Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.
Even with Mucho Macho Man not returning to defend his title in the one-mile Gulfstream Handicap after taking ill earlier this week, racing secretary Dan Bork may have his hands full finding as many as five other rivals to challenge Fort Larned in his 2013 debut.
NEW ORLEANS – Officially, Divine Happiness will be racing six furlongs in a first-level allowance/optional claiming race for 3-year-old fillies Sunday at the Fair Grounds.
But if the race, the seventh on a nine-race card, goes according to trainer Larry Jones’s plan, Divine Happiness will keep running hard past the finish line.
“Hopefully, we can let her work out a little bit out after the race,’’ Jones said.
Jockey James Graham said he liked what he saw from Ive Struck a Nerve in the Risen Star last weekend and is looking for him to improve even more.
At 135-1 odds, Ive Struck a Nerve rallied from last to first to win the Risen Star, the final prep for the Louisiana Derby.
“He ran a good race,” Graham said. “He really did. And I think there’s more improvement if he settles more. He doesn’t have to be as far back. Maybe he can keep stepping forward. I think if he settles the way he did . . . you can do anything with him.
