Jockey Omar Berrio was hospitalized on Friday after suffering a stroke that left him with some paralysis on the right side of his body, according to trainer A.C. Avila.
Avila employs Berrio as an exercise rider at Santa Anita and said the 43-year-old rider had suffered some damage to his speech. The extent of the injuries was being determined on Saturday, he said.
“We don’t know yet,” he said. “They’re doing scans.”
Mac Robertson intends to employ his version of divide and conquer this summer throughout the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic region.
Robertson, 38, will spread his string of horses among Canterbury Park, Arlington Park, and Delaware Park, where he finished third in the 2011 trainer standings with 31 wins from 142 starters.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Sakakawea, exhibiting her controlling speed and proficiency in running around the turn at Prairie Meadows, took her third straight $70,000 Mamie Eisenhower Stakes on Saturday night over five Iowa-bred rivals.
Seizing command early on and extending her advantage to five lengths around the bend in the six-furlong event, the 6-year-old mare had enough left to resist the determined bid of Ginger Added to score by 1 1/2 lengths in a time of 1:11.35.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.- Shackleford, the 2011 Preakness winner who posted his first victory in nearly a year in winning the Grade 2 Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard, will make his next start in the May 28 Met Mile at Belmont Park, said trainer Dale Romans.
“I couldn’t be prouder of him,” said Romans. “When he’s on his game and he digs down, it’s tough for another horse to get by him. If he keeps running like he did Saturday, we’re going to have a really good year with him.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela is still seeking his first win of the spring-summer meeting at Betfair Hollywood Park, two weeks after the 49-year-old rider ended a four-month retirement.
Through Thursday, Valenzuela was winless with 21 mounts, including one second-place finish and three thirds. Mounts have been scarce, too.
Thursday, Valenzuela had one ride, finishing fifth on Warren’s Kong in the fourth race on an eight-race card.
Sunday, Valenzuela, 49, has three mounts on a nine-race program.
One impressive 2-year-old from last year, Fire On Ice, recently rejoined trainer John Kimmel at Belmont Park and could be back to the races before the end of the meet.
Fire On Ice won his debut by 10 3/4 lengths last August on Travers Day at Saratoga, running six furlongs in 1:09.67. He was training for a start in the Grade 1 Champagne when he suffered a condylar fracture in his left hind ankle that required surgery.
Frank Stronach had purchased 80 percent of the colt from Kimmel and Eli Ghindi after the colt’s debut.
Thus far, Broadway’s Alibi has come out of her runner-up finish to Believe You Can in the Kentucky Oaks in good shape and is under “strong consideration” for the Grade 1 Acorn on May 28, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Believe You Can, is being pointed to the Grade 1 Mother Goose on June 23.
Broadway’s Alibi and Believe You Can went at it from the start in the Oaks, with Believe You Can, under Rosie Napravnik, getting the better of Broadway’s Alibi in deep stretch.
Andrew Leggio is branching out at the age of 78.
The trainer of St. John’s River, who was second in the Grade 2 La Troienne earlier this month at Churchill Downs, has found himself with divisions of horses at three different tracks this spring. Leggio has 18 head at his usual base, Louisiana Downs near Shreveport, another 10 at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La., and five at Churchill Downs.
“It’s a little different this year,” Leggio said. “I usually have in the neighborhood of 20 horses. It’s just the way things happened this year, and we’re just going with the flow.”
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Scratched from a turf race last weekend at Arlington Park, Hero of Order, the shocking winner of the $1 million Louisiana Derby on April 1, is back in the entries Sunday at Arlington, one of eight horses in a second-level allowance race also open to $40,000 claimers and carded over a one-turn mile on Polytrack.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Amazombie, second to Shackleford in the Churchill Downs Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard last weekend, is likely to make one start at the current Betfair Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting, in the $250,000 Triple Bend Handicap on June 30.
The Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap is run over seven furlongs, and is the top sprint race of the meeting.
“I think that’s probably what we’ll do,” trainer Bill Spawr said. “I think in the right circumstances he can run that far.”
