ARCADIA, Calif. – The field for the Santa Anita Handicap on March 2 could include Sky Kingdom, who returned from a layoff of nearly a year to win an optional claimer in Thursday’s seventh race.
Ridden by Martin Garcia, Sky Kingdom ($9.40) closed from last in a field of seven with a five-wide move to win by a neck over Blueskiesnrainbows, winner of the Grade 2 Swaps Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park last July.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While Delightful Quality would have garnered some attention from bettors in next Saturday’s $100,000 Correction Stakes, her connections opted to go for an easier spot in Sunday’s $75,000 Cagey Exuberance Stakes at Aqueduct.
The Cagey Exuberance, run at six furlongs, is restricted to fillies and mares who have never won a stakes race. A field of five was entered.
NEW ORLEANS – With a victory in the Silverbulletday Stakes last weekend, Touch Magic paid off quickly for Keith and Ginger Myers’ Coteau Grove Farms.
Coteau Grove had purchased Touch Magic in December, a month after she finished second in the Grade 3 Delta Princess in her fourth start.
“We wanted to try to get a good 2-year-old filly coming 3 that had a chance to get to the Oaks,” Keith Myers said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Dominick Schettino already has one horse on the Triple Crown trail in Always in a Tiz, who finished a credible third in Monday’s Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
Schettino hopes to get a second horse on the road to the Kentucky Derby when he sends out Escapefromreality in next Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct. The Withers, a two-turn race run at 1 1/16 miles over the inner track, offers 17 qualifying points (10-4-2-1 to the top four finishers) for the May 4 Kentucky Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Nearly 17 months after a flashy debut, Egg Drop has yet to fully display her potential.
Trained by Mike Mitchell for Little Red Feather Racing, Egg Drop beat maidens at Del Mar in September 2011, and has made two subsequent starts – a 10th-place finish in the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland in October 2011, and a third in an optional claimer at Betfair Hollywood Park last June.
NEW ORLEANS – Returning at the same distance and class level at which he lost by a nose in a three-horse photo Dec. 15, Friendly Banter is part of an entry that is the morning-line favorite in the Sunday feature at the Fair Grounds.
Major Gain, his entrymate, is the only also-eligible among the 11 older horses. The race is a second-level optional $40,000 claiming event scheduled to be run at about 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
NEW ORLEANS - Fair Grounds officials called off turf racing Friday because of continuing wet conditions, but remained hopeful the course would be suitable for use Saturday, when three turf stakes races are scheduled.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After beating a field of males that included Charming Kitten and Itsmyluckyday in the Dania Beach, both of whom came back to win stakes in their next starts, Mystic Love figures to be a standout returning against her own sex in Sunday’s $100,000 Sweetest Chant Stakes. But even Mystic Love’s trainer, Jessica Campitelli, admits the gals may be every bit as tough as the guys in the turf division this winter at Gulfstream Park.
Ronnie Lee Danner, a retired assistant starter at Churchill Downs, died on Jan. 20. at age 66. Funeral arrangements were handled by Chambers and Grubbs in Florence, Ky. Memorial donations can be made to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
Aqueduct canceled live racing for Friday due to cold temperatures, the second straight card scrapped due to weather.
Aqueduct and Belmont Park were to be open for simulcasting.
Temperatures were expected to be in the low to mid 20s on Friday with wind chills in the mid to upper teens. Light snow was forecast for the middle of the afternoon, but minimal accumulations were expected.
Aqueduct has now canceled three cards this winter.
Live racing is expected to resume on Saturday, when temperatures are forecast to reach 30 degrees.
