Dm Streakn Thru Fire will attempt to turn the tables on champion Prospect to the Top on Sunday when the Quarter Horses meet in the Grade 1, $350,000 Championship at Sunland Park. The 400-yard race for 3-year-olds and up is one of two stakes on the program.
The $85,000 Albert Dominguez Memorial Handicap for New Mexico-breds at 1 1/16 miles is led by 123-pound highweight Our Choice.
ARCADIA, Calif. – My Miss Aurelia, the 2011 champion 2-year-old filly, who was third as the favorite in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Wednesday, will have a 2013 campaign focused on the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic here in November.
Friday, it was unclear how active My Miss Aurelia would be in coming months at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
Scott Blasi, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen, said that discussions will be held with owners Barbara Banke and George Bolton on plans for the filly, who has won 6 of 8 starts and $2,422,000.
[bc_video_id:280110:]ARCADIA, Calif. – The winter turf division in California will gain clarity Sunday at Santa Anita, where a good field of fillies and mares races 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 3 Robert J. Frankel Stakes.
The $150,000 stakes is led by three principals – Tiz Flirtatious, Halo Dolly, and Qaraaba. There is little doubt Tiz Flirtatious would be a deserving favorite after missing by a length last month in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Betfair Hollywood Park.
“We were proud of her, it was a lot to ask,” trainer Marty Jones said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flashback, considered one of trainer Bob Baffert’s top 3-year-old prospects for 2013, missed a scheduled workout at Santa Anita on Friday after Baffert and jockey Martin Garcia said they were unhappy with the colt’s condition in the moments before the exercise.
Flashback was considered a candidate for the $100,000 Sham Stakes over a mile on Jan. 5 until Friday’s setback.
Shortly after 9 a.m., Flashback was being prepared for a workout when Garcia and Baffert spoke via radio and decided to abandon the workout.
NEW ORLEANS – After a Churchill Downs fall meet that couldn’t have gone much worse for trainer Danny Peitz, the Fair Grounds meet couldn’t have started much better for him.
“When I was in Kentucky, every horse got either a bad post or wound up on the bad part of the racetrack,” Peitz said. “They came here. They still had the same conditions. Everything’s falling into place.”
At Churchill, two second places were Peitz’s only in-the-money finishes from 15 starters. But at this meet, Peitz won with four of eight starters and has seven in-the-money finishes.
Rodney Prescott became the 162nd jockey in North American racing history to win 3,000 races when he guided Heart of Class to a narrow victory in the ninth race Thursday evening at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.
Prescott, 38, told Turfway officials the milestone meant a lot to him. “I’m thankful to have won that many. I’ve had a good career.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Dominick Schettino said he’s considering the options for his top 3-year-old prospect Always in a Tiz, a son of Tiznow who was stakes placed in his most recent start earlier this month at Aqueduct. Always in a Tiz is nominated to the Gulfstream Park Derby but is not likely to run, according to Schettino.
“We’re still discussing what we want to do with him, but at the moment our thoughts are to look at the graded stakes coming up and try to put him on the Derby trail,” said Schettino.
Populist Politics, the beaten favorite in the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic, and Watch My Smoke, who finished second in that Fair Grounds race, will get a rematch Saturday night at Delta Downs in the $70,000 B-Connected. The field for the one-mile race for Louisiana-breds who have not won a stakes in 2012 also includes Idefromthebayou and Break Up, both of whom also exit the Champions Day Classic.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – As good as Saratoga Snacks has been, trainer Gary Sciacca believes the best is yet to come for the New York-bred colt who on Wednesday won the Alex M. Robb Stakes at Aqueduct.
“I think he’s good enough to win some Grade 1 somewhere. I think he’s that good,” Sciacca said on a dreary Thursday morning at Belmont Park. “He does everything so easy. He does everything right. Look at yesterday, he just coasted around there. Ramon never asked him.”
Mordi’s Miracle had been a huge disappointment for trainer Todd Pletcher and Zayat Stables through his first four starts.
But on Dec. 5, he won a one-mile maiden race by 9 1/2 lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 96.
Saturday, Mordi’s Miracle, a 3-year-old son of Lawyer Ron, will try to prove he’s not a one-hit wonder when he faces winners for the first time in a $69,000 allowance race at a mile and 70 yards over the inner track.
Pletcher said the fact the horse was able to break cleanly may have played a role in the colt getting his first victory.
