Enhanced purses for three major stakes and two new stakes for California-bred juveniles are among the notable changes to the stakes schedule for the Betfair Hollywood Park fall meeting, which runs from Nov. 8 through Dec. 16.
The track will run 18 stakes, including four Grade 1 races – the Matriarch Stakes and Hollywood Derby on turf and the Hollywood Starlet and CashCall Futurity for 2-year-olds. The $750,000 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 15 is the richest race of the meeting.
Cold Cash 123, the reigning Quarter Horse World Champion, makes his long-awaited California debut in Sunday’s $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap at Los Alamitos, the first in a three-race autumn campaign designed to defend his title.
Unraced since winning the Remington Park Championship in Oklahoma City in May, Cold Cash 123 joined trainer Dennis Ekins’s stable in late July. Previous trainer Sleepy Gilbreath is based in Texas and does not race in California.
POMONA, Calif. – Closing day is always big for Fairplex Park, 2012 in particular. When the 13-day autumn meet ends Sunday at the Los Angeles County Fair, the significance of the closing-day feature might extend all the way to the Breeders’ Cup.
The nine older horses entered in the $100,000 Ralph M. Hinds Handicap include two with designs on the BC Marathon, and another whose performance may indicate the strength of the California contingent aiming to the BC Mile.
Arstar, winner of the CTHS Sales Stakes in her last start at Assiniboia Downs on Aug. 24, will be looking to close out her first campaign on a winning note when she faces nine rivals there in Sunday’s Buffalo Stakes.
The $50,000 Buffalo, a one-mile race for Manitoba-bred 2-year-olds, will go as the ninth of 10 races on the final card of the 60-day meeting, which will begin at 1:15 p.m.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Dale Romans and owner Jerry Crawford have decided to switch plans for their pair of 3-year-olds, moving Dullahan to the Grade 1 Jamaica on Oct. 6 and Finnegan’s Wake to the Grade 1, $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational next Saturday.
Romans said Friday that by running Dullahan in the Jamaica at 1 1/8 miles on turf as opposed to the Joe Hirsch at 1 1/2 miles, it still leaves the door open to run in any one of three Breeders’ Cup races – the Mile, the Turf at 1 1/2 miles, or the $5 million Classic on dirt at Santa Anita.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A fresh Evil Kitten will try to notch her first stakes Sunday at Woodbine in the $150,000 La Lorgnette, a 1 1/16-mile route for 3-year-old fillies, which was won by champion Biofuel and Grade 1 winner Hooh Why in recent years.
Evil Kitten ran erratically in 2011, when she won her maiden for $50,000 and ran second in a two-turn allowance. She also competed in three stakes and was beaten double digits on each occasion.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Undefeated Second City has been sold for an undisclosed sum by Peter Redekop to Paul Reddam and will be sent to trainer Ben Cecil’s barn at Santa Anita in the next few days.
Arstar, winner of the CTHS Sales Stakes in her last start at Assiniboia Downs on Aug. 24, will be looking to close out her first campaign on a winning note when she faces nine rivals there in Sunday’s Buffalo Stakes.
The $50,000 Buffalo, a one-mile race for Manitoba-bred 2-year-olds, will go as the ninth of 10 races on the final card of the 60-day meeting, which will begin at 1:15 p.m.
Awesome Gem, the multi-millionaire and multiple stakes winner whose seven-year racing career made him a throwback to a bygone era, has been retired, trainer Craig Dollase said Friday.
A 9-year-old gelding, Awesome Gem was found with inflammation in a leg Friday morning, two days before a scheduled start in the $100,000 Ralph Hinds Pomona Invitational at Fairplex Park.
Owned by the West Point Thoroughbreds partnership, Awesome Gem won 11 of 52 starts and earned $2,881,370.
