ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Eswan Flores resumed working horses at Santa Anita on Thursday, days after completing a 60-day suspension for a cocaine positive at Del Mar.
Flores said that he hopes to return to riding during the first week of the Betfair Hollywood Park autumn meeting, which begins on Nov. 8.
Pay the Man will try to win her third consecutive Scarlet and Gray Handicap on Saturday at Beulah Park when she takes on nine other Ohio-bred fillies and mares at six furlongs.
Adding interest to the race is that Patrick Valenzuela is expected to be at Beulah to ride Caviar N Champagne, Pay the Man’s chief rival. According to Jeremiah Englehardt, trainer of Caviar N Champagne, Valenzuela is a friend of the horse’s owner, Laura Pavlish, who races as Luch Racing Stable.
Indiana-breds are the focus on the final card of the Hoosier Park racing season Saturday evening. A pair of $84,000 2-year-old events and a pair of $200,000 races for older horses highlight the 14-race program that also includes three Quarter Horse stakes. Both the Frances Slocum for Indiana-bred fillies and mares and the To Much Coffee for older horses had purses of $88,000 until they were boosted to $200,000 this year. Both will be contested at 1 1/16 miles.
Uno Pecador has never looked much like a stakes horse during his 53-start career, and he has only a slim chance of winning the $125,000 Bucks Boy Handicap, but that doesn’t mean his presence won’t be felt. All front-running speed, Uno Pecador should hook up with Mr. Mischief to ensure a strong pace in the Bucks Boy, and barring trouble, that should send favored Suntracer into the winner’s circle.
The $100,000 Gold Cup at Delta Downs on Saturday night ushers in something of a new era for Louisiana-bred racing: Life without Star Guitar. The one-mile race is for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana, the division Star Guitar dominated from 2009 until his retirement this summer, when he won the 22nd stakes of his career in the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Classic at Evangeline Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Doug O’Neill had his priorities Thursday. First up was to work a number of his horses at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup, including Richard’s Kid and Handsome Mike, both of whom will run in the $5 million Classic on Nov. 3.
Next was to get out of here and head up to San Francisco to watch his beloved Tigers in Game 2 of the World Series against the Giants.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Little Drama won’t likely reach the heights of his champion older brother Big Drama, but he could very well earn his first graded stakes victory Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Bold Ruler Handicap at Belmont Park.
Little Drama enters the Bold Ruler off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Vosburgh, run at six furlongs, here on Sept. 29. An inside post position led trainer Michael Mareina to instruct jockey Rajiv Maragh to send Little Drama away from the gate and he got caught up in speed duel before fading in the stretch.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though few trainers are as adept at successfully bringing a horse back off a long layoff as Bill Mott, there are a couple of reasons to take a shot against Arena Elvira when she attempts to repeat in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap off a 189-day layoff.
When Arena Elvira won last year’s Turnback the Alarm, the race was run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns at Aqueduct. This year, the Turnback the Alarm has returned to Belmont and will be run at 1 1/16 miles around one turn.
Of the 14 fillies and mares entered in the main body of the Lady Baltimore Stakes at Laurel Park, eight have finished first or second in a Grade 3 turf stakes this season. That makes the 1 1/16-mile Lady Baltimore perhaps the most challenging race for handicappers on the Saturday card.
The Lady Baltimore is one of five turf stakes worth $150,000 apiece on a Fall Festival of Racing program topped by the $350,000 Frank De Francis Memorial Dash on the main track. The Lady Baltimore goes as race 7 on a card that starts at 12:35 p.m. Eastern, 35 minutes earlier than usual.
