OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On the Aqueduct backside, their barns are separated by about 30 feet of road. In the standings on the New York Racing Association circuit for 2012, trainers David Jacobson and Richard Dutrow Jr. were inseparable.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park and the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association signed new purse and slots contracts on Monday. The terms of the slots contract will help provide a strong basis for Gulfstream’s planned expansion of its casino, which in turn will result in more money to be earmarked for purses, according to horsemen and track officials.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Defending champion Heavenly Landing tops a field of 10 fillies and mares entered in Saturday’s Grade 3 Marshua’s River Stakes on the turf. Heavenly Landing, who got up in the final stride to win the race a year ago, will share high weight of 121 pounds with Leading Astray.
The remainder of the field comprises Chokurei, Frolic’s Revenge, Affair Dabbler, Channel Lady, Frontside, Filare l’Oro, Hard Not to Like, and Fantasy of Flight.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Todd Pletcher-trained Verrazano wasn’t the only 3-year-old to put himself into the Derby picture on opening day. Itsmyluckyday obviously threw his hat in the ring with his one-sided victory in the Gulfstream Park Derby. And Bradester likely punched his ticket to the Grade 3 Holy Bull here later this month with a 1 3/4-length entry-level allowance win going 1 1/16 miles a little earlier on the card.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Four months have gone by since Dry Summer won the only stakes of his career, the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on Sept. 5.
He will be largely ignored by bettors when he starts in Saturday’s $100,000 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita, the first stakes of the year in the build-up to the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 6.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – As if trainer Todd Pletcher didn’t already have a strong enough arsenal of 3-year-olds heading into the new year, on Tuesday he wasted little time adding another to the list after Verrazano cruised to an easy 7 3/4-length victory over what appeared to be a loaded maiden field in the second race of the 2013 season.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The purse may be about a third less than what he ran for in his last start, but the drop-off in competition isn’t nearly as steep for Private Tale, who heads Aqueduct’s $71,000 allowance/optional claiming feature Friday.
Trainer Steve Sherman won 107 races in 2012, ranking him 40th in the nation, and 11 of those victories came from two horses.
The claimer Lord Vronsky won his final five starts of 2012, and Sister Glady Oh La won six races for Sherman.
A 5-year-old Vronsky gelding, Lord Vronsky was sent north to Sherman in July after previously being trained by Mike Mitchell. He had two seconds and a third in his first three starts for Sherman, then didn’t lose again for the rest of the year.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Eddie Kenneally may hold the key to both allowance races that headline Friday’s 10-race program at Gulfstream Park.
Kenneally will send out Force de La Nature as the horse to beat in the afternoon’s sixth event, a $57,500 second-level allowance dash for older fillies and mares to be decided at six furlongs. He’ll also bring back Honorable Dillon, a very impressive maiden winner in his last start at Saratoga, from a four-month freshening to go postward as the likely favorite in the ninth race, a 6 1/2-furlong optional claiming test for 3-year-olds.
