[bc_video_id:247626:]Keertana and Hit It Rich may vie for favoritism in the $150,000 Orchid on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 3 event for older fillies and mares will be run at 1 1/2 miles on turf.
Keertana has been a model of consistency for trainer Tom Proctor and is coming off a second-place finish behind Here to Win in defense of her title in the Grade 3 The Very One earlier in the meet. The Very One was one of three graded stakes victories for Keertana in 2011.
[bc_video_id:247620:]HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Even with a little better racing luck, Where’s Sterling may not have won the Donn Handicap here at Gulfstream Park earlier this winter. But he certainly would have come a lot closer in his Grade 1 debut than his fourth-place finish if he had not steadied sharply in traffic at the head of the stretch.
Where’s Sterling will be looking for a cleaner trip when he steps down in class and stretches out in distance to take on eight rivals in Saturday’s $100,000 Skip Away, a Grade 3 stakes to be decided at 1 3/16 miles.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – From week to week, Alpha seemingly had a different destination. At one point, he was headed to the Louisiana Derby. Then the Florida Derby was in play.
With the dust finally settled, Alpha will run in the spot trainer Kiaran McLaughlin circled long ago on his calendar: the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 7.
NEW ORLEANS – It’s fair to wonder if Upperline, making her first start since October, will be at her best when she starts Saturday in the $100,000 Bayou Handicap. And it’s fair to wonder if she’ll need to be.
Only six other turf fillies and mares were entered in the 1 1/16-mile race, and with Daisy Devine, the top turf horse this winter in New Orleans, already in Kentucky preparing for a race at Keeneland, the Bayou didn’t draw a scintillating bunch.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The barn of Todd Pletcher at the Palm Meadows training center is just a few rows from that of Michael Matz, and every morning, watching the Matz-trained Union Rags on the track, Pletcher has been reminded of the challenge he faces on Saturday in the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Five starts and five losses into his 2-year-old campaign, The Black was headed toward oblivion. The colt’s trainer blames himself.
“I probably screwed up,” Doug O’Neill said. “I had him in blinkers, routed, turf . . . I had him all over the place. I don’t know who was more confused, him or me.”
For a 3-year-old campaign, O’Neill was determined to restore order by focusing The Black on dirt sprints, no blinkers. The result was consecutive blowouts that stamp The Black as likely winner of the $200,000 Echo Eddie Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Grace Hall did everything expected of her but win the Grade 2 Davona Dale when she launched her 3-year-old campaign here at Gulfstream Park earlier this winter. On Saturday, the runner-up in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies will be favored to get back to the winner’s circle when she takes on seven other 3-year-old fillies in the $300,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks, which highlights the undercard on the 13-race Florida Derby day program.
Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., will give ontrack players the ability to make bets in fractions of the minimum, the track announced on Thursday.
Under the system, bettors will be able to place a wager at denominations of their choosing, as long as it exceeds the minimum bet. For example, a bettor wanting to place a trifecta bet at the Keeneland spring meet could place a bet at an 80-cent denomination, since the minimum for trifectas is 50 cents, Keeneland said in a release.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bodemeister, the runner-up in the San Felipe Stakes on March 10, will make his next start in the $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 14, Jimmy Barnes, trainer Bob Baffert’s assistant said on Thursday.
Bodemeister was being considered for the Arkansas Derby or the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7 before the decision was made to send the colt to Oaklawn Park. In recent days, Barnes has been in regular contact with Baffert, who is in Dubai for Saturday’s Dubai World Cup.
