Larry Jones the trainer and Brereton Jones the owner-breeder have the horse to beat, Same Cross, in the featured eighth race on Thursday at Fair Grounds, a first-level sprint allowance race carded for turf but almost certain to be moved to the main track because of wet conditions.
Jockey Calvin Borel, who has not ridden since breaking a small bone in his left wrist the second week in January, is awaiting clearance from his doctor to return to the saddle. Borel was evaluated on Tuesday by his doctor, who asked him to come back next week for another assessment, said Jerry Hissam, the rider’s agent. Borel is one win shy of career victory 5,000. He was injured just prior to the start of the Oaklawn meet Jan. 11.
Big Lute, a dominant debut winner of a maiden special weight sprint at Oaklawn last Friday, could make his stakes debut in the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel, trainer Steve Hobby said on Tuesday. The mile and a sixteenth race for 3-year-olds is March 16 at Oaklawn.
“The ideal situation would be to give him experience going two turns one time [in an allowance], then go into the Rebel,” said Hobby. “That would be the best-case scenario.”
Believe You Can had a sharp 1 1/16-mile workout Saturday afternoon that paid her connections $60,000. Another name for the event was the Tiffany Lass Stakes, but Believe You Can so overmatched her four foes – she won by 10 1/2 lengths while geared down the final half-furlong – that the race might as well have been a work.
But even an easy race like the Tiffany Lass is worth considerably more than even the fastest work, and Believe You Can’s first start since June should help move her forward into the heart of her early-season campaign.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Owner-breeder Brad Kelley will now race as Calumet Farm, rather than Bluegrass Hall, in a change that goes into effect on Thursday when his Wine Glow starts in the seventh race at Oaklawn Park. Kelley leases and operates Calumet Farm, the historic Lexington, Ky., nursery that bred and raced Triple Crown winners Citation and Whirlaway.
“Every horse that was Bluegrass Hall now [races as] Calumet Farm,” said D. Wayne Lukas, the primary trainer for Kelley.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Luck deserted Juniper Pass and jockey Julien Leparoux at the worst time in the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 13.
Turning into the stretch of the race over 1 1/8 miles on turf, Leparoux had Juniper Pass sixth in the field of seven, racing behind horses. He never found adequate racing room, and they could finish only fourth, beaten 4 1/2 lengths by race winner Jeranimo.
“He could have been second with a clean run,” trainer Ray Bell said. “He didn’t have a chance.”
Juan Hernandez, who was one of Northern California’s top jockeys after his arrival from Mexico in 2009, is returning to Northern California after trying the Southern California circuit last summer.
The 20-year-old Hernandez went south after the Golden Gate Fields season concluded and had 10 winners at Del Mar while getting acquainted with the trainers down there. He had a strong meeting at Fairplex, finishing third in the standings with 18 victories from 73 mounts, a solid 25 percent win rate.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Tiz Argent will shake off more than a year of cobwebs Thursday at Santa Anita, where the 6-year-old runs a mile on turf in his first start since January 2012.
Despite inactivity, Tiz Argent is among the favorites in race 7, an allowance/optional claimer for California-breds with 10 in the main body. Tiz Argent and Teafatiller have won the condition and race for a $25,000 tag. The two also-eligibles, Alley Hondro and Cahill Country, also entered for the claim price.
Trainer Genaro Vallejo took a shot running the filly Butterfly Soul against males in last month’s California Derby. Although she ran well, Butterfly Soul is probably headed back to the 3-year-old filly ranks in Saturday’s $50,000 California Oaks.
Butterfly Soul, who won the Phil D. Shepherd at Fairplex in September and lost a photo on the turf in the Pike Place Dancer here in October, finished fourth behind Zeewat in the California Derby, losing by 2 1/4 lengths.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Graham Motion has nominated Absolute Crackers to Saturday’s Grade 3 Suwannee River as well as the Grade 3 The Very One the following weekend. But barring a last-minute change of heart, Motion will take the more conservative route with the stakes-caliber Absolute Crackers and keep her with allowance company one more time in Thursday’s $60,500 main event, carded at a mile on the grass.
