ARCADIA, Calif. – The brilliant mare Grand Slam Smile has won eight stakes in her career, seven for California-breds and the Fasig-Tipton Debutante in her second start at Santa Anita in June 2023.
In her only start in a graded stakes, Grand Slam Smile was a well-beaten third in the Grade 3 Torrey Pines Stakes at a mile on dirt at Del Mar in August 2024, the only time the 5-year-old mare has finished worse than second in 18 starts.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Six months ago, Vodka Vodka was a maiden nearing a comeback after a yearlong layoff.
On Saturday at Santa Anita, Vodka Vodka became a stakes winner in the $175,000 Unusual Heat Turf Classic and a candidate for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.
The move from a stakes for statebreds at 1 1/8 miles on turf to the $300,000 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on dirt is a significant leap, but trainer and co-owner Aggie Ordonez said the Big Cap is worth considering.
Todd Pletcher couldn’t have hoped for more than he got with the two Saturday runners he shipped to Fair Grounds from his winter base at Palm Beach Downs. The 3-year-old Jackson Hole, coming off a one-turn-mile debut win, easily captured a first-level route allowance, and 4-year-old Accelerize, making his fourth career start and stakes debut, led wire to wire in the Grade 3 Louisiana, where he held off odds-on favorite Just a Touch.
Both horses could return to Louisiana in February, Jackson Hole in the Risen Star, Accelerize in the Mineshaft Stakes.
The 3-year-old filly Taken by the Wind has started her career with three wins, the most recent Saturday in the Silverbulletday Stakes. Her trainer, Kenny McPeek, sees Taken by the Wind as a Kentucky Oaks horse, and McPeek believes she needs only one more race before the Oaks.
That race could come at Fair Grounds, in the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 21; at Oaklawn, in the Fantasy Stakes on March 27; or at Keeneland, in the Ashland on the first weekend in April.
The final five races of Saturday’s nine-race card at Aqueduct were canceled due to snow that led to adverse track conditions, according to the New York Racing Association.
The final five races included the $135,000 Ladies Stakes, which has been rescheduled for Jan. 30.
Saturday’s first four races, which were run in the snow, included the first two legs of the pick six. That wager was refunded. Also refunded were the pick five, that started with race 3, as well as the cross-country pick five, which was to start with the Ladies, Aqueduct’s eighth race.
Mr. Disrepectful, the veteran gelding, tends to earn his wins.
In allowance races for statebreds on turf at Del Mar in Nov. 30 and at Santa Anita on Dec. 29, Mr. Disrespectful overcame troubled trips to win as a favorite. He won by a nose at Del Mar and by 3 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita.
The determination could lead to the 6-year-old’s first stakes win in the $175,000 Unusual Heat Turf Classic for California-breds at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Saturday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The undefeated Breeders’ Cup winner and soon-to-be-named Eclipse champion Ted Noffey was finally back on the work tab Friday when breezing an easy three furlongs in 37.01 seconds at the Palm Beach Downs training center. It was his first official work since putting a punctuation mark on his championship 2-year-old campaign with a one-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
The trainer Michael Stidham has two talented 4-year-old grass horses in his Fair Grounds barn, and while both should race in February, Stidham isn’t sure when and where that will happen.
Tom’s Magic, undone by a tough trip, finished second in the $1 million King’s Plate in August, and in his most recent start on Nov. 29 missed by a neck in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. He has worked twice in January toward his 4-year-old debut.
The connections of the 5-year-old mare Lotsandlotsofcandy were willing to try their horse on turf last weekend in the Nelson Menard Memorial but did not at all mind the Menard getting rained off grass. That made Lotsandlotsofcandy an odds-on favorite, and she ran her career record to 6-4-1-0 while winning her stakes debut by 4 1/2 lengths and earning a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
Magnitude, one of the more interesting older dirt-route horses in North America, remains on course to leave North America for his 4-year-old debut.
Magnitude’s connections secured a spot in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 14 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh and Magnitude has so far hit every mark preparing for the race.
“He’s been training great. He flies over on Feb. 2,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Magnitude for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds.
