HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Musical Romance is currently the biggest name on the Calder backstretch but trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. certainly appears to have a potential star on his hands in Scatter Joy, who raised a few eyebrows with his 7 1/2-length debut victory in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden special weight event at Gulfstream Park on Sunday.
Scatter Joy, a son of Scat Daddy, is a homebred owned by Marion Montanari. He earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure of 85 in his unveiling.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Grade 2, $250,000 Davona Dale is the highlight on Saturday’s card but it will be a pair of “hundred-granders," the Grade 3 Sabin and The Very One stakes, that may command the most attention, with each featuring the 2012 debuts of a Breeders’ Cup winner.
Fed Biz, winner of a maiden race and an optional claimer at this meeting, will make his stakes debut in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 10, trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday.
Owned by Kaleem Shah, Fed Biz won an optional claimer over a mile by 5 3/4 lengths on Feb. 9. On Wednesday, the colt by Giant’s Causeway worked six furlongs in 1:16.
“He was just cruising around,” Bafffert said. “He switched leads and did everything right.”
In his Feb. 9 race, Fed Biz did not switch leads until deep stretch.
Santa Anita has received permission from the California Horse Racing Board to eliminate seven days of racing on Wednesdays in March and April from the current meeting, track officials said.
The track is currently running four days a week – from Thursdays through Sundays – and originally planned to expand to a five-day racing week beginning the week of March 7.
In a letter sent to racing board chairman Keith Brackpool on Monday, Santa Anita requested to stay with a four-day format through the end of the meeting on April 22. Brackpool approved the request.
NEW ORLEANS – Like gunslingers inexorably moving toward one another for an old-fashioned shootout, Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher have been dominating the 3-year-old preps this year. As a result, each trainer has four runners on this week’s top 20 list of Derby Watch, Baffert doubling his total from a week ago because of subsequent victories by Castaway and Secret Circle in divisions of the Southwest Stakes.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Absinthe Minded has been on a stakes roll at Oaklawn Park, and next month she will be taking on a Horse of the Year. Absinthe Minded will defend her home court against Havre de Grace as both runners are now being pointed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Azeri.
The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares is March 17 at Oaklawn. It is one of four stakes for the division this meet and a key stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 3 is likely to have a double-digit field.
As of Wednesday, there were 10 probable starters for the Grade 1 race over 1 1/4 miles, a group led by defending champion Game On Dude. Trained by Bob Baffert, Game On Dude was second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November and won his 2012 debut in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 5.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – El Aguila Real earned an automatic berth for the $750,000 Champion of Champions with his victory in the $226,050 Los Alamitos Winter Championship last Sunday at Los Alamitos.
The problem for El Aguila Real is that the Champion of Champions is still 10 months away, on Dec. 15.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Los Bomberos has won 2 of 3 starts since being claimed for just $12,500 at Hollywood Park last November.
Finding the right spots for the 4-year-old gelding can sometimes be tricky. Los Bomberos was entered in an optional claimer over six furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita on Monday, but was scratched by trainer Mark Glatt. Instead, Glatt opted to enter Los Bomberos in a similar race over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, Friday’s seventh race.
A winner of 4 of 11 starts and $60,200, Los Bomberos, 4, will make his turf debut on Friday.
