HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Greg Griffith knew 20 minutes before El Commodore’s last start, in the Japan Racing Association Stakes at Laurel in September, that his horse was in big trouble.
“It poured so hard as we were leading them over for the race you couldn’t see the racetrack five feet away,” said Griffith. “The turf course went from concrete to a complete bog and speed never had a chance.”
Check My Thoughts needs only to repeat the performance of his victory in the Grade 1 Golden State Derby in August to win Sunday’s $170,900 Southern California Derby for 3-year-old Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos.
That’s the outlook of trainer James Glenn Jr., approaching Sunday’s race.
“He’s really good,” Glenn said Thursday. “He seems like he’s getting stronger and bigger than I could have imagined. We’re ready to go. If he gets a good break and has a little luck, he’ll be right there with them.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Add Highestmaintenance to the long list of soon-to-be 3-year-old prospects trainer Todd Pletcher will have at Gulfstream Park this winter. A Macho Uno filly, she cruised to a one-sided victory launching her career in Thursday's seventh race.
Highestmaintenance, a $240,000 purchase earlier this year at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March sale, is owned by Mike Repole.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Party Lad won for the third time in four starts, running his eight rivals off their feet to capture Thursday's $54,500 main event on the Gulfstream Park turf. The Canadian-bred Party Lad won his maiden at first asking at Woodbine and an entry-level allowance dash at Penn National by a combined 10 1/2 lengths. Thursday was his first start on grass.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – All restrictions at Gulfstream Park were lifted late Thursday afternoon after test results on a horse who died the previous morning came back negative for the equine herpesvirus.
Gulfstream Park officials had put restrictions on the barn that housed the deceased horse as a precautionary measure until test results could be obtained ruling out the possibility that it had died from any potentially contagious diseases such as equine herpesvirus. Four horses residing in the restricted barn were scratched from Wednesday and Thursday’s racing programs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Emma's Encore, who gave Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens his first Grade 1 win at Saratoga in five years when she won the Prioress on Aug. 4, will make her 2013 debut in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint on Jan. 19.
Emma's Encore, a 3-year-old daughter of Congrats, has not started since finishing eighth in Keeneland's Grade 2 TCA on Oct. 6. Emma's Encore rallied from last to defeat Judy the Beauty by a nose in the six-furlong Prioress. She won Belmont Park's Grade 3 Victory Ride in similar fashion four weeks earlier.
STICKNEY, Ill. – The featured sixth race Saturday at Hawthorne is an allowance race open to anyone who wants to run, no conditions attached. If there was a condition, it would read something like, “For horses stuck in Stickney.”
Daisy Devine has thrived as the underdog. Owner James Miller purchased her for a mere $5,500 as a yearling, one of the great bargains of recent seasons. Daisy Devine has gone on to win eight races and more than $900,000 in her 15-start career. In only two of those starts has she been favored, and the only time Daisy Devine was overwhelmingly expected to win, when she was 1-2 in the 2011 Iowa Oaks, she finished a distant fifth.
At first glance, Bold Affair looks like a sure thing against eight other fillies and mares in Saturday’s $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go Stakes at Laurel Park.
Bold Affair has won her last three races when asked to run seven furlongs or a mile by a combined margin of 23 3/4 lengths, including her most recent outing in the Geisha a month ago. So why shouldn’t she be a lock going a one-turn mile again?
Well, there are hints that although Bold Affair is a logical favorite, she may not be an invincible one.
