HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Starformer, Seanchai, and Kadaya are a perfect 5 for 5 combined in races carded at 1 3/8 miles, which means something has to give when the quartet squares off in Saturday’s $100,000 The Very One, a Grade 3 marathon to be decided at 11 furlongs over the Gulfstream Park turf course.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Snow Fall emerged as a mare with a highly promising future when she won her first stakes in California in the Paseana Handicap at Santa Anita on Jan. 13.
Her ascension through the female main-track division can continue in Saturday’s $200,000 Santa Maria Stakes for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles. But she must beat two leading rivals, including stablemate Lady of Fifty, who won the Grade 2 Bayakoa Handicap in December.
[bc_video_id:284219:]HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Lucky Chappy may be the most talented horse not to have won a race, let alone a graded stakes, in almost 20 months. Trainer Graham Motion is hoping to put an end to that dubious distinction when he sends Lucky Chappy out as one of the favorites Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the $150,000 Mac Diarmida.
PHOENIX – Last year Derive came into the $75,000 Phoenix Gold Cup, the marquee event of the Turf Paradise meet, riding high off a four-race win streak. A game win in the Gold Cup sealed his Horse of the Meet honors. The 7-year-old gelding returns Saturday to defend his title, but his position atop the local heap is much more precarious this time.
The six-furlong Gold Cup is part of a stakes tripleheader Saturday. It goes as race 8 with a field of nine. The card also features the $35,000 Turf Paradise Handicap (race 4) and $35,000 Sun City Handicap (race 7).
ARCADIA, Calif. – Remembering Spence was a colt when he finished third in the Grade 2 Governor’s Cup Futurity at Los Alamitos last July. When he starts in Saturday’s Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby, Remembering Spence will race for the second time as a gelding.
Remembering Spence was gelded last summer, and given the rest of the year off. In his first race of the year, a time trial for the $231,650 Winter Derby on Jan. 26, Remembering Spence won by 1 1/2 lengths. He ran 400 yards in 19.74 seconds, setting the fastest qualifying time for the Winter Derby.
Considering what turf racing has been in 2013 at Fair Grounds – that is, virtually non-existent – it will come as little surprise if the Saturday feature, the $60,000 Sarah Lane’s Oates Stakes, will have to be transferred from the turf to the main track.
This particular instance would not bother Dallas Stewart. Not at all. Stewart trains Ante Up Annie, one of the eight Louisiana-bred 3-year-old fillies in the field, and her chances figure to improve dramatically with a switch to dirt.
Trainer Bob Baffert doubled down on Saturday’s 32nd running of the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields.
Baffert had indicated early in the week that he would ship Carving north to run in the race, which awards 10 points to the winner in the new eligibility system for the Kentucky Derby. When Wednesday’s draw was held, he also entered Manando, who was made the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the field of nine.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine Entertainment Group, cutting operational costs in anticipation of the end of the racetracks-at-slots program on March 31, has eliminated 109 positions, which amounts to 25 percent of its salaried workforce.
The Woodbine Entertainment Group announced the “restructuring” in a press release late Wednesday afternoon.
A dispute between Arlington Park, the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and the Illinois Racing Board has arisen over language Arlington used on an application for stall space at the track’s 2013 race meet.
The mention of stall rent at a track -- like Arlington --owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated is a hot-button topic because of a similar situation at Calder Race Course in Florida, another CDI track which has seen stall-rent disputes between management and horsemen.
Two major players based at Belmont Park spent Wednesday morning training at Aqueduct for this holiday weekend’s graded stakes at Laurel Park.
My Wandy’s Girl, among the choices for Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap, and Brigand, the probable favorite for Monday’s Grade 3, $250,000 General George Handicap, took separate vans from Belmont to Aqueduct on Wednesday to put in workouts for their upcoming stakes engagements.
