OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Nick Canani plans on calling New York his home this winter, but he has some big plans for Called to Serve that he hopes will take him on a few road trips.
After his breakthrough performance winning the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap by 4 3/4 lengths on Nov. 17 at Aqueduct, Called to Serve will be pointed to either the Grade 2, $200,000 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 2 or the Grade 1, $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream on Feb. 9.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A determined Nefertini fended off a stretch challenge from Willet to win Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Go for Wand Handicap by a neck at Aqueduct.
Fantasy of Flight, the 3-5 favorite, finished last after setting the pace.
The win was the fifth from 10 career starts for Nefertini, a 4-year-old daughter of Empire Maker owned by Robert Masterson and trained by Alan Goldberg.
In two previous graded stakes tries, Nefertini finished fourth in the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth and third in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm at Belmont.
NEW ORLEANS – Sign won the Pocahontas Stakes by four lengths on Oct. 28 at Churchill, and would have been heavily favored there Saturday had her connections entered Sign in the Golden Rod Stakes. But the people behind Sign have their eyes farther down the road and on a bigger prize than the Golden Rod, and in the interest of Sign’s 3-year-old campaign took a pass on racing Sign again this year.
“We’re looking at the Kentucky Oaks and plotting backward from there,” said Al Stall, who trains Sign for owners and breeders Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Royal Currier, an eight-time stakes-winning sprinter, has been transferred to trainer Linda Rice, who will point the 4-year-old gelding to the Gravesend Handicap here on Dec. 15.
Owned by the MAT Stables of Michael Ciaccio, Royal Currier has won of 12 of 28 starts including eight listed stakes. His biggest win came in the $250,000 Gallant Bob at Parx last year where he set a track record of 1:07.51 for six furlongs.
Most recently, Royal Currier finished ninth in the De Francis Dash at Laurel in his last start for trainer Patricia Farro.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It might seem unusual for the leading contenders in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes to be winding up at the same time the 2012 season is winding down.
Whose campaign peaks in November, anyway? The answer is most of the eight fillies and mares entered in the $250,000 Matriarch on Sunday at Betfair Hollywood Park.
Dayatthespa missed summer in New York because of soreness behind.
Emulous missed summer in Ireland due to unsuitable footing. Tiz Flirtatious missed summer in California because of minor physical issues.
The New York Racing Association enjoyed solid increases in all-sources handle with modest gains in ontrack wagering for the Belmont Park fall meet that concluded Oct. 28.
All-sources handle on Belmont’s races only was $299,106,695 for a daily average of $8,308,519, up 13.7 percent from the $263,037,788 wagered in 2011. On-track handle on Belmont’s races was $42.499,742, averaging $1,180,548 daily, up 2 percent from $41,656,097 wagered last fall.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With the graded stakes portion of the season complete on this circuit, Sunday’s program at Aqueduct offers a winter preview with five claiming races and four races restricted to New York-breds.
The co-features are $54,000, first-level allowance sprints restricted to New York-breds, which also carry an optional claiming clause for $14,000.
The eighth race, for males, marks the return of Ludo Bagman following a six-month layoff.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith has gained the mount on Game On Dude for the $250,000 Native Diver Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park on Dec. 1, trainer Bob Baffert said Friday.
Smith will be the third jockey in four races for Game On Dude, the leading older male in California this year. Baffert made the decision in the weeks after Game On Dude finished a disappointing seventh as the 6-5 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 3. The loss eliminated Game On Dude from consideration for Horse of the Year.
The Thoroughbred mare Hallowed Dreams has a trio of 2-year-old Quarter Horses on the track this year and one of them, A Dream to Remember, should go favored Sunday in the Grade 1, $200,000 Southwest Juvenile Championship at Zia Park.
Hallowed Dreams, who won the first 16 starts of her career, retired in 2002 with a record of 25 wins from 30 starts for earnings of $740,144. During her career, she won 17 stakes, most of them in her native Louisiana.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Add Point of Entry to the list of North American-based horses being considered for a race in Dubai in 2013.
Point of Entry, winner of three Grade 1 marathon turf races in 2012 and runner-up to Little Mike in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, will run in 2013 with the $5 million Sheema Classic on March 30 on the Dubai World Cup card at Meydan as an early-season objective, according to trainer Shug McGaughey. The Sheema Classic is run at 1 1/2 miles on turf.
