HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A field of six or seven older handicap runners is lining up for Saturday’s Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, a group led by the red-hot Csaba and El Padrino.
Trainer Phil Gleaves confirmed Sunday that Csaba, who has cruised to three straight stakes wins including an easy victory here last month in the Harlan’s Holiday, is a definite for the one-mile Hal’s Hope. Csaba tuned up for the assignment by breezing an easy half-mile in 50.40 seconds at Calder on Monday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After briefly considering shipping eight-time stakes winner Royal Currier to south Florida for the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint – a race in which he finished third last year – his connections opted for a more conservative route. Thus, Royal Currier will make his 5-year-old debut in Wednesday’s $75,000 True and Blue Stakes at Aqueduct.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – It was almost preordained that Jason DaCosta would become a horse trainer. After all, DaCostas’s father, Wayne DaCosta, is a 10-time leading trainer in Jamaica, a member of the Jamaican Racing Hall of Fame, and has saddled more than 1,600 winners.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Nick Zito picked up three more victories over the weekend and may have found himself a potential Kentucky Derby contender or two in the process.
Eton Blue rallied from just off the pace to a half-length victory over stablemate Dyker Beach to win his maiden at second asking in the second division of a one-mile maiden special weight race for 3-year-olds Saturday. Zito came back the following afternoon to capture two more races, with Tuvia’s Force and Tiz Yankee.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A pair of recent maiden winners, Tapicat and Dancing for Glory, along with the graded-stakes-tested Fly Again top a field of seven 3-year-old fillies entered to go a mile on the grass in Wednesday’s $54,500 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.
Tapicat, a $725,000 yearling purchase trained by Bill Mott, won his turf debut going 1 1/16 miles here Dec. 2, while Dancing for Glory followed suit at a mile on the grass 12 days later. Fly Again finished fourth in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont in her second start at 2.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Mizdirection closed from 10th in a field of 14 to beat males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita back in November. She ran an equally thrilling race to win Sunday’s $150,000 Monrovia Stakes.
Of course, there was a vast difference in the purse – the BC Turf Sprint was worth $1 million - but Mizdirection was fully extended to catch a stubborn leader in Kindle to win the Grade 2 Monrovia Stakes, run for fillies and mares over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The comeback of Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens in Sunday’s sixth race at Santa Anita nearly resulted in the first win in more than seven years for the famous rider.
Stevens finished third aboard Jebrica after leading in the stretch of the one-mile turf race for $50,000 claimers. Jebrica could not hold the lead and finished a neck and a nose behind Maybe Tuesday ($13).
The mount was the first of Stevens’s comeback, which he announced last Thursday.
Sunny Desert proved she could go two turns as she ran her winning streak to six with a one-length victory in Sunday’s $67,500 Cat Cay Stakes at Aqueduct.
Moon Philly finished second by 1 1/2 lengths over Morrow Cove.
Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who has not ridden since Nov. 16 at Betfair Hollywood Park after complaining of knee pain, is scheduled to undergo knee surgery this week, he said on Sunday.
Valenzuela, 50, hoped to have the operation in December, but said that it was delayed while he waited for approval from an insurance company. He is hoping to return to racing in late February.
“I finally got the okay to get the surgery on Friday,” he said. “I hope to be back by the end of the February. They have to go in there and see what’s going on.”
