Aqueduct 2013 Winter/Spring Stakes Schedule

The restoration of two graded stakes for fillies and mares and the addition of a second New York Showcase Day program at Belmont Park are the significant changes to the New York Racing Association’s stakes program in 2013.

The NYRA Reorganization Board approved the stakes program only for Aqueduct’s winter/spring and Belmont Park’s spring/summer sessions at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

It’s mid-December, and now is the time the Fair Grounds program for 3-year-olds of 2013 has to get off the ground. The Thursday card should help with that. It includes two maiden special weight races for 2-year-olds followed by a featured first-level turf allowance race for juvenile fillies.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Retired trainer Mel Stute remained hospitalized early Tuesday after striking his head in a fall at his home last Saturday.

Stute was taken out of intensive care Monday and is expected to be hospitalized until the end of the week, according to his son, trainer Gary Stute.

“He doesn’t want to be in the hospital,” Gary Stute said. “They’ll keep him for a couple of more days.”

Mel Stute is best known as the trainer of Snow Chief, the champion 3-year-old colt of 1986.

Texas Bling emerged from his 128-1 upset of the $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in good order and is now pointing to Oaklawn Park’s series for 3-year-olds, trainer Danele Durham said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Calidoscopio, the 9-year-old from Argentina who won the Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 in a 17-1 upset, will miss Saturday’s $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup because of an elevated temperature.

The illness was detected last week and had subsided enough last weekend for the horse to resume light training, trainer Mike Puype said.
The new long-term goal for Calidoscopio is the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap at Santa Anita on March 2, with one prep race.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Wesley Ward is off to a quick start at the 2012-13 Gulfstream Park meeting. On Thursday, the former jockey figures to add to his lead in the trainer’s standings when sending out the potent duo of Great Attack and Gentlemans Code in the afternoon’s main event, a $65,000 allowance dash carded at five furlongs on the turf.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Gabriel Charles, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint Preview at Santa Anita on Nov. 3, will pass the CashCall Futurity, trainer Jeff Mullins said.

Mullins said he was not entirely satisfied with the way Gabriel Charles worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 at Hollywood Park last Saturday.
“It wasn’t good enough,” he said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bob Baffert unveiled a sharp 2-year-old last weekend when Flashback, a colt by Tapit, won his debut in a seven-furlong race for maidens.

Ridden by Julien Leparoux, Flashback was timed in 1:23.09, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 93. Flashback was fourth early and rallied wide to win by 3 1/2 lengths as the favorite. It was the sort of performance that Baffert said he expected, and one that immediately vaulted Flashback onto the list of 3-year-olds to watch in early 2013.

“He’s a nice horse,” Baffert said. “We’re high on him. We were hoping for that.”

Los Alamitos will host the Bank of America Racing Challenge Championship in 2013, the American Quarter Horse Association announced Tuesday.

The Challenge Championships are a series of lucrative year-end stakes for Quarter Horses from throughout the United States. Horses qualify for the stakes by winning regional races throughout North America, beginning each spring and continuing through early fall.