ARCADIA, Calif. – The prestige of the San Juan Capistrano Handicap may have slipped, but for fans of Santa Anita, the 1 3/4-mile turf race always brings heartfelt symbolism.
As the traditional closing-day feature, the Grade 2 San Juan is the end of the line. It is time to turn the page. After the final card of the Santa Anita winter meet on Sunday, the circuit packs up and moves to Hollywood Park for a spring meet that begins Thursday.
Those pesky April showers predicted for the weekend moved up workouts for horses seeking May flowers, specifically roses. With inclement weather looming in both Kentucky and Florida, the trainers of Union Rags, Gemologist, and El Padrino both decided to work their horses on Friday as final preparations grew ever closer for the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On Fire Baby had her next-to-last workout for the May 4 Kentucky Oaks when she breezed seven furlongs in 1:26.80 early Friday over the same Churchill Downs racetrack where last fall she swept the Pocahontas and Golden Rod Stakes.
Trainer Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage said he was very pleased with the way On Fire Baby went through her paces, as the gray filly went in splits of 25 seocnds, 49.80, and 1:14.40 before finishing strongly and galloping out a mile in 1:40.20 with regular rider Joe Johnson aboard.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It would be a fitting tribute to the longtime New York breeder/owner Herbert Schwartz if Be Bullish won Sunday’s $75,000 Fabersham Stakes, the closing day feature at Aqueduct.
Schwartz, who counts Be Bullish among the bevy of stakes winners he owned and bred over the years, died Thursday at the age of 80. Herbert and his wife Carol bred Be Bullish and campaigned him for 39 races from the fall of 2007 through July 25, 2010 before the horse was claimed from him for $50,000.
AUBURN, Wash. – Handicappers were forced to dig deep to find a decent price during the first few days of the new meeting at Emerald Downs. The betting favorite won 16 of the 26 races during the three-day opening last weekend, and several favorites look formidable Sunday on an nine-race card that kicks off at 2 p.m. Pacific.
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority’s board of commissioners has accepted a hearing officer’s conclusion that a complaint filed by Hialeah Park owner John J. Brunetti seeking to reopen bidding for a lease of the authority’s Monmouth Park should be dismissed.
Hard Not to Like, who is headed for the May 4 Kentucky Oaks, breezed four furlongs in 52.20 seconds on the dirt training track at Woodbine on Friday morning.
“She went a very easy half,” said Gail Cox, who trains Hard Not to Like and was in the irons for the exercise. “I was going to two-minute lick her, but that’s very hard to do with her. She was extremely hard to pull up.”
Duplicating the success of early April may be impossible for Quarter Horse owner-breeder Mimi Wells in coming days.
On April 5-6, Wells won the El Primero Del Ano Derby at Los Alamitos with New Look, saw her 2-year-old maiden Chics on Fire win at Los Alamitos, and qualified Better than Ever and Kool Baby for the President’s Open Sprint Futurity at Turf Paradise. The final of that race is Friday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Atlantic Hurricane capped her sensational 2011 campaign with a dominating performance in the Grade 3 Bessarabian Stakes, a victory that helped her to nail down the Sovereign Award for Canadian female champion sprinter. On Sunday at Woodbine she’ll try to pick up right where she left off last year in the Grade 3 Whimsical Stakes, a six-furlong sprint worth $150,000.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Bold Pretense looks like the one to beat in a first-level $50,000 optional claiming race that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies goes as race 7.
