Tue, 05/22/2012 - 16:35

Hollywood Park notes: Reneesgotzip will stay home for now

Benoit & Associates
Reneesgotzip, with Corey Nakatani riding, wins the Santa Ynez.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The spring campaign of 3-year-old Reneesgotzip has been redirected, and the graded stakes-winning filly will stay home rather than ship to Belmont Park for the Grade 1 Acorn on Monday as planned. “We’re going to punt,” trainer Peter Miller said Tuesday at Hollywood Park. “They’re calling for rain in New York, and to run her a mile right now, possibly on an off track, doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 16:19

Hollywood Park: Racing Aptitude looks ready for his return in Thursday optional claimer

Benoit & Associates
Racing Aptitude returns to action in an optional claimer Thursday at Betfair Hollywood Park.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Trick question: Which six-furlong race is easier?

Is it a Grade 3 with a $100,000 purse, or an allowance worth $62,000?

The allowance, of course, should be easier. But four of the six runners in the race 7 feature Thursday at Betfair Hollywood Park were plucked from the nominations of the Los Angeles Handicap on Memorial Day Monday, and their presence in the Thursday allowance makes the race almost as compelling as the $100,000 stakes three days later.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 16:05

Churchill Downs notes: Summer Applause needs surgery

Tom Keyser
Summer Applause has a knee chip that will require surgery.

One filly who didn’t exit the Kentucky Oaks in such good shape is Summer Applause, who was fourth as the 6-1 fourth choice in the race. Trainer Bret Calhoun said Summer Applause was diagnosed afterward with a knee chip and has been sidelined indefinitely to undergo surgery and recuperate.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 15:28

Belmont Park: Plenty of handicapping angles for Thursday turf feature

ELMONT, N.Y. – There’s something for everyone in Thursday’s optional claiming feature scheduled for the Widener turf at seven furlongs.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 15:18

Lone Star: Marilyn's Guy a proven road warrior

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Marilyn’s Guy has had some recent success shipping and winning, and his connections will be hoping for more of the same on Monday when he runs in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap. The 1 1/16-mile race is the richest of the meet and it caps an extended, five-day holiday race week at Lone Star.

Marilyn’s Guy on Tuesday morning vanned out of his Delaware Park base bound for Texas after satisfactory flight arrangements could not be made to Lone Star.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 15:01

Belmont Stakes 2012: O'Neill case set to go before California Horse Racing Board

Barbara D. Livingston
Doug O'Neill, the trainer I'll Have Another, will be the subject of a case before the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday.

While I’ll Have Another has settled in at Belmont Park in preparation for a Triple Crown bid in the 144th Belmont Stakes on June 9, his trainer, Doug O’Neill, will have his attention redirected Thursday clear across the country to Betfair Hollywood Park, where the California Horse Racing Board, at its scheduled monthly meeting, will take the next step in a case that potentially could result in O’Neill being suspended for six months.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 14:59

Warren recuperating after heart attack

ARCADIA, Calif. – Less than a week after he nearly died from a severe colon infection and accompanying heart attack, trainer Don Warren was recovering at a local hospital and eager to get back to work with his top horse, the 2011 champion older male Acclamation.

Warren, 60, suffered a heart attack last week that may have been brought on by an internal infection. Warren’s wife, Pat, said the initial prognosis was not good. “The doctors didn’t think he would make it,” she said. “He was pretty sick.”

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 14:45

Churchill Downs: Bouquet Booth out to end losing streak

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Margolis admits to being a little frustrated by the tough luck Bouquet Booth keeps having. Mired in a winless streak that dates to January 2011, Bouquet Booth returned from her latest race with a glue-on horseshoe that had come apart and surely made the filly uncomfortable during a seventh-place finish in a turf allowance on the May 4 Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 14:07

On Fire Baby heading to Belmont for Acorn Stakes

Barbara D. Livingston
Trainer Gary Hartlage will ship On Fire Baby to Belmont for the Acorn.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On Fire Baby has trained so well since her fifth-place finish in the May 4 Kentucky Oaks that trainer Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage is trying her in another Grade 1 race, the Acorn Stakes on Monday at Belmont Park.

On Fire Baby is scheduled to leave Friday on a charter plane with other Churchill Downs-based horses bound for the big Memorial Day weekend in New York. The $300,000 Acorn, run at a one-turn mile, is set for the Metropolitan Mile undercard on Monday.

Tue, 05/22/2012 - 12:57

Calder notes: Trinniberg gets back to work, eyes Woody Stephens Stakes

Barbara D. Livingston
Trinniberg is being pointed to Belmont’s Woody Stephens on June 9.

MIAMI – His Triple Crown days now behind him, Trinniberg began preparing for the rest of his 3-year-old campaign when breezing a sharp half-mile in 47.01 seconds after the renovation break Tuesday morning at Calder.

With jockey Jose Alvarez aboard, Trinniberg went an easy opening quarter in 24.01 before really picking up the pace leaving the turn. He completed his final quarter in an eye-catching 23.03 while under some pressure coming to the wire before galloping out five-eighths in 59.86 over a fast track.