Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who was off his mounts on Saturday and Sunday, will undergo knee surgery and will be sidelined indefinitely, according to his agent, Tom Knust.
Knust said that Valenzuela, 50, injured the knee at Del Mar during the summer, but had been riding through the discomfort in recent months.
“He can’t work horses right now, so he thought it would be the right time to address the issue,” Knust told the Hollywood Park publicity department.
Eblouissante, a half-sister to 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta and a maiden race winner in her debut last Friday, may start again before the current meeting at Betfair Hollywood Park ends on Dec. 16.
Trainer John Shirreffs said he would prefer to run the 3-year-old filly at Hollywood Park instead of in the opening days of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26.
“I’d rather run here,” he said. “We’d like to see that.”
NGLEWOOD, Calif. – The well-traveled Golden Ticket has run at six tracks in as many starts in Kentucky and on the East Coast since February. He starts at yet another new venue next Sunday, in the $250,000 Hollywood Derby at Betfair Hollywood Park.
Golden Ticket is best known as the dead-heat winner with Alpha of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 25. For the next stage of his career, he starts for the first time in a stakes on turf in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby.
Locally based horses who looked like logical contenders on paper produced runaway victories in a pair of restricted stakes for 2-year-olds Sunday at Parx Racing.
Res Judicata ($6.20), racing on Lasix for the first time, drew off to a 6 1/2-length victory under Jeremy Rose in the $77,000 Chris Elser Memorial for 2-year-old colts and geldings. Earlier on the card, Nanaja ($5.80) followed up her debut win with a 5 1/2-length score in the $75,000 Donna Freyer for 2-year-old fillies.
Rose to Gold, who won the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess on Saturday, will be put on a path to the Kentucky Oaks, her trainer, Sal Santoro, said on Sunday. She is based at Calder, and her winter agenda will include starts at Gulfstream Park.
“I think were looking at the Davona Dale and the Gulfstream Oaks, and if everything goes good, the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs,” said Santoro.
Santoro on Sunday said it is yet to be determined if Rose to Gold would race before the Davona Dale, a Grade 2, $250,000 race on Feb. 23.
VINTON, La. - The goal for Goldencents is a “Derby journey,” trainer Doug O’Neill said on Sunday, a day after the horse won the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot in just his third career start. O’Neill said the horse will likely make his next start in January, in a race to be determined. Goldencents was traveling on Sunday, headed for Santa Anita.
Saginaw wrested the lead around the turn, built a clear advantage through midstretch beneath Ramon Dominguez, and held off a determined Friend Or Foe to win Sunday’s $80,000 Fourstars Allstar overnight stakes at Aqueduct.
Saginaw ($3.20) tracked Johannesburg and Beautyinthepulpit through early fractions of 23.53 and 46.71 seconds, gained command after six furlongs in 1:10.67, and was fully extended to turn back Friend Or Foe by three-quarters of a length.
Open Me a Corona won the first $1 million Quarter Horse race run in Louisiana on Saturday, when he led box to wire in the Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Breeders Futurity at Evangeline Downs. The race was a restricted Grade 1.
Open Me a Corona ($8) broke sharply and covered the 400 yards for 2-year-olds bred in Louisiana in 19.66 seconds. Open Me a Corona won by a half-length over Logans Mountain, while it was another neck back in third to Perrys Runaway.
Russell Road made amend for his defeat as the odds-on favorite in last month’s West Virginia Breeders’ Classic and last fall’s A Huevo when he ran down younger rival Lucy’s Bob Boy in deep stretch to win Saturday night’s $50,850 A Huevo Stakes for West Virginia-breds at Charles Town.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Centre Court got a textbook ride from Julien Leparoux in posting a convincing two-length triumph Saturday night in 22nd running of the Grade 2, $202,125 Mrs. Revere Stakes, the anchor of the lone Downs After Dark card at the Churchill Downs fall meet.
Trained to the minute by Rusty Arnold, Centre Court stalked the pace in the 1 1/16-mile race set by longshot English Class before taking over at the top of the stretch. From there, the filly simply widened before being eased up in the final 40 yards by Leparoux, the one-time dominant jockey at Churchill.
