ARCADIA, Calif. – The days of racing at 1 1/2 miles are over for Slim Shadey, a two-time stakes winner in 2012.
For 2013, Slim Shadey will be kept to races at 1 1/8 miles and 1 1/4 miles on turf, beginning with Sunday’s $150,000 San Gabriel Stakes over 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita.
“I think the distance is slightly better for him,” trainer Simon Callaghan said. “He’s training really well for this race.”
Unlikely to find an allowance race, trainer Rick Violette will likely have to run recent maiden winner Clawback in a stakes at Aqueduct for his next start.
The question is, will Violette keep Clawback at six furlongs in the $75,000 Jimmy Winkfield on Jan. 21 or attempt to stretch him out to 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 2, $200,000 Withers on Feb. 2?
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
“I’m not sure yet,” Violette said Friday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Charm the Maker will start in a stakes at Santa Anita in January, but a decision on whether she runs in Sunday’s $75,000 Paseana Handicap or the $150,000 La Canada Stakes on Jan. 20 may not be made until Sunday.
The winner of the Sharp Cat Stakes on the synthetic main track at Hollywood Park in November 2011, Charm the Maker has yet to win a stakes on a dirt track in three tries. She was third in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes here in October 2011.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bruce Brown has always thought highly of Mischief Maker. That explains why he ran her against males in her career debut and in a stakes race in her second start.
It wasn’t until her last race, however, that Mischief Maker showed everybody else what Brown had been seeing.
Sunday, Mischief Maker will attempt to validate her impressive seven-length allowance win last out when she faces four rivals in the $75,000 Swirlaway Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares going a mile over Aqueduct’s inner track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ramon Dominguez will head to Gulfstream Park next weekend where he most likely will accept his third straight Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding jockey.
But it is a trip to Gulfstream on Feb. 9 that Dominguez may be even more excited about.
Dominguez will ride Animal Kingdom, the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner in the Grade 1, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap. Amazingly, Dominguez will become the seventh jockey to ride Animal Kingdom in what will be the colt’s 10th career start.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas will be active in the region’s two major stakes for 3-year-olds next weekend. He said he plans to ship Oxbow to Fair Grounds for the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte on Saturday, while Will Take Charge is to stay home at Oaklawn Park and run in the $150,000 Smarty Jones at on Monday, Jan. 21.
NEW ORLEANS – Hugh McMahon, one of the leading trainers on the Maryland circuit, was looking for a winter base with a turf course when he decided that he would send horses to the Fair Grounds.
“We had a really good meet at the Colonial meet,” McMahon said. “We won the title there. We had grass horses. Let’s try New Orleans.”
Though wet weather has limited turf racing recently, McMahon said he’s enjoying his first season here.
The field for the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park gained another player Friday after Tulira Castle worked a strong six furlongs in 1:14.18 for trainer Jim DiVito.
With jockey Javier Castelllano aboard, Tulira Castle completed his final quarter-mile in 25.48 seconds into a stiff headwind before galloping out seven furlongs in 1:26.58.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Soldat will be back on the main track for the first time since finishing 11th behind Animal Kingdom in the 2011 Kentucky Derby when he launches his 5-year-old campaign here at Gulfstream Park on Sunday in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope.
Soldat has started just twice since the Derby. He posted an impressive three-length win on the grass here against third-level optional $80,000 claimers last March, and then went to the sidelines again before returning to finish sixth as the 7-5 favorite in an overnight turf stakes at Aqueduct in November.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The power of lone speed will be tested Sunday in the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita, where Chosen Miracle should be loose on the lead.
“I don’t want to say what my strategy is right now,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said this week. No problem, it is obvious. The controlling speed in the mile and one-eighth turf race, Chosen Miracle has one good chance to win – by shaking loose.
