Jockey Ramon Dominguez, the two-time reigning Eclipse Award winner, suffered a separated – but not fractured – collarbone and will miss an undetermined amount of time as the result of a spill in Sunday’s eighth race at Aqueduct.
Meanwhile, apprentice jockey Samuel Camacho Jr., involved in the same spill, was uninjured and is expected to ride Wednesday at Aqueduct. Both jockeys were released from North Shore University Hospital about 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Paco Lopez, the two-time defending Gulfstream Park riding champion, suffered a broken collarbone and six fractured ribs in a frightening spill that took place near the top of the stretch in Saturday’s 11th and final race.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Secret Circle will attempt to complete a sweep of Oaklawn Park’s series for 3-year-olds next month, when he runs in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby. He is being pointed to the April 14 race, trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday, one day after the horse took the Grade 2, $500,000 Rebel at Oaklawn. Earlier in the meet, Secret Circle captured the second and faster division of the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes.
Jockey Gerard Melancon closed out his roller-coaster Delta Downs meet with a stakes win Saturday night, when he guided Amazing Saint to a 3 1/4-length win in the $60,000 Bonne Chance. The one-mile race for fillies and mares was one of two stakes on the closing-night card. Wicked Vow upset the $60,000 Au Revoir, winning by two lengths and returning $40.20.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Juvenile champion Hansen breezed an easy half-mile in 50.40 seconds at Churchill Downs Trackside on Sunday in preparation for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 7 at Aqueduct. The work marked his first breeze since taking the March. 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.
With exercise rider Joel Barrientos aboard, Hansen breezed comfortably while never being asked for speed over a fast but drying-out racetrack. He went evenly, with Daily Racing Form timing him galloping out five furlongs in 1:06.20.
Tequila Factor, a two-time stakes winner on grass who even got a crack at the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall (ran 14th), had his class come through as the 121-pound co-highweight overcame a disadvantageous extreme outside post to capture Saturday’s $35,000 Tempe Handicap at a mile on the grass for 3-year-olds at Turf Paradise.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Even though Include Me Out was coming off the biggest race of her career in the La Canada Stakes on Jan. 22, trainer Ron Ellis and owner Samantha Siegel resisted the temptation to come back a month later, believing their best shot of winning the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational on Saturday at Santa Anita was to come into it fresh.
The plan could not have worked out any better.
Arena Elvira posted her fifth straight victory by edging out R Gypsy Gold in the $50,000 Wayward Lass Stakes on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
With the track's leading rider, Leandro Goncalves, aboard, Arena Elvira raced in mid-pack before getting up in the final strides to win the 1 1/16-mile race by a head as the odds-on favorite. R Gypsy Gold, the 5-2 second choice, finished six lengths ahead of Dash Dot Dash in a field of seven fillies and mares.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Secret Circle handled the latest distance test in his escalating career Saturday at Oaklawn Park, when he beat a fast-closing Optimizer by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 2, $500,000 Rebel Stakes. In the process, Secret Circle gave his trainer, Bob Baffert, his third consecutive Rebel win in a streak that started with Lookin At Lucky in 2010 and continued with the The Factor in 2011.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The champ is back!
Eclipse Award winner Musical Romance rebounded from her disappointing 2012 debut in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint to register a three-quarter-length victory over the 45-1 Hot Summer in Saturday's $150,000 Inside Information at Gulfstream Park. Groupie Doll, the tepid 3-1 favorite in the evenly matched field, rallied belatedly to finish third.
