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.
Skip to main content
Create Your DRF Account
New to DRF?
Everything you could possibly
need in one place
need in one place
Register
Don't have an account?
Register Here
DRF Past Performances
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.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mark Casse likely summed up the feelings of every trainer participating in Sunday’s $100,000 Hal’s Hope at Gulfstream Park when he said, “I’d feel pretty darn good if Csaba wasn’t in there.”
The red-hot Csaba will likely be favored to post his fourth straight stakes victory in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, a race he and many others in the field are hoping to use as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 9.
NEW ORLEANS – Stakes winners Tour Guide and Avie’s Quality are among 10 3-year-olds under consideration for the Lecomte, the first two-turn stakes prep for the Louisiana Derby.
Entries will be taken Wednesday for the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte, a mile-and-70 yard race next Saturday. The race is in the first level of races offering Kentucky Derby points – 10 for winning, 4 for finishing second, 2 for third, and 1 for fourth – as part of Churchill Downs’s new qualifying system if the Kentucky Derby overfills.
One long-standing Grade 3 stakes returns after a year’s absence, while two Grade 3 turf events are gone as part of the 2013 stakes schedule released by Monmouth Park on Friday.
Overall, Monmouth will offer 19 stakes worth a collective $3.75 million this season, down slightly from the 2012 stakes package of 22 stakes worth a combined $3.95 million. Overnight stakes, which will be announced at a later date, are not included in the totals.
The 2013 stakes include 16 graded races worth a total of $3.45 million.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though trainer Nick Canani sounded like he’s leaning toward running Called to Serve in the Grade 1, $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 9, he cautioned no firm decision has been made.
Canani said he and owner Marc Ferrell are still considering the Grade 2, $200,000 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 2 or possibly just training up to the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 2.