OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Attfield, last seen winning the Central Park Stakes on turf at Aqueduct on Nov. 7, returned to the work tab Thursday at Belmont Park, breezing a half-mile in 49.90 seconds over the training track.
While it was Attfield’s first official work of his 3-year-old season, trainer Tom Morley said the horse “had a little leg-stretcher” last week.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – My World will soon be traveling to a different part of the world.
My World, winner of the Nashua and Jerome Stakes in his last two starts at Aqueduct, will soon be headed to Saudi Arabia to compete in the $1.5 million Saudi Derby on Feb. 14 at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh. He will join his fellow Brad Cox trainee Bishops Bay, the Grade 2 Cigar Mile winner, who has gotten an invite to the $20 million Saudi Cup, the same day.
The Saudi Derby is run as a one-turn mile, the same configuration of the Nashua and Jerome.
ARCADIA, Calif. – On Thursday, Santa Anita unveiled a slot machine-style parimutuel game based on previously run races, a venture track officials hope will lead to an ancillary form of revenue to support California racing.
The track installed 26 machines in a small grandstand pavilion. The machines, which were available for public use for the first time on Thursday, will be active on live racing days.
There is an $83,237 carryover in Friday’s late pick five at Tampa Bay Downs after nobody hit the wager on Wednesday’s card.
A parade of longshot winners in Wednesday’s sequence that included Missus Seki ($68.20), Break Out ($27.80), Protest ($38.40), and Develop Product ($17.60) led to the carryover.
The late pick five, a $0.50 minimum wager, begins in Friday’s fifth race and includes full to oversubscribed fields in each leg.
He’s 10-1 on the morning line in a listed stakes race, so it’s fair to say that Reagan’s Wit has largely been forgotten.
That’s not so surprising. Reagan’s Wit never won a graded stakes and ended his 3-year-old campaign with a whimper, finishing sixth July 4 in the Manila Stakes at Saratoga.
Reagan’s Wit came out of the Manila with a bone chip in his ankle and makes his first start since in Saturday’s $100,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley at Fair Grounds.
Brad Cox-trained 3-year-old fillies in recent years have made hay in the Fair Grounds dirt-route stakes program. Cox has trained the Fair Grounds Oaks winner four out of the last six years and won the Rachel Alexandra three times during the last four seasons. But while Cox has runners in seven Fair Grounds races Saturday, he starts nothing in the Silverbulletday Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, a race he’s won twice the last three years.
Jockey Emisael Jaramillo has traded a position among the top 10 riders at Gulfstream Park for a similar spot at Santa Anita.
Jaramillo, 48, is riding at Santa Anita for the first time this winter. Through Sunday, he had won five races, good enough to rank in a tie for fourth in the standings after seven days of racing.
“I’m liking California,” Jaramillo said in an interview between races on Sunday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Bill Mott sent out a pair of very impressive 3-year-old debut winners here Saturday, Chief Wallabee and Thunderously.
Chief Wallabee registered a 1 1/2-length victory going seven furlongs in the fourth race. Thunderously was an even easier five-length winner going 1 1/16 miles a couple of hours later. Both horses were ridden by jockey Junior Alvarado, who had four winners on the card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – White Abarrio took a very important step toward defending his title in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 24, working four furlongs in 47.88 seconds here Sunday. The work was the most impressive for White Abarrio since he was scratched in the post parade minutes before the start of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov 1.
“He needed to get a good work in,” said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. “He definitely moved well, seemed in good order, and hopefully it will be the right stepping-stone he needs to come back in the Pegasus.”
