OZONE PARK, N.Y. - There were more than a few raised eyebrows, some Internet chatter, and backstretch banter regarding David Jacobson’s claim of Thisskysabeauty from Andrew Lakeman on Thursday.
Thisskysabeauty was the first horse Lakeman – the former jockey who was paralyzed in a spill in May 2007 – ever trained and just one of two horses in his care. Thisskysabeauty gave Lakeman his first win as a trainer last Thanksgiving Day.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Gleaming is developing into a female sprinter of note. She has won two stakes in her last three starts, and for one of those wins earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 92. Sunday, Gleaming will be out to build on the success, when she takes on eight other fillies and mares in the $60,000 Spring Fever.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Creative Cause does not have to win his comeback Sunday at Santa Anita. The goal, after all, is 1 1/4 miles in May, rather than a sprint in February.
Trainer Mike Harrington downplays the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes, but the implications are unmistakable. The seven-furlong race is the first start for Creative Cause since a third-place finish Nov. 5 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
The ride starts over Sunday against five rivals in the San Vicente.
Here's my race-by-race rundown of Saturday's pick five at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 18, 2012. I'm building my wager with TicketMaker, found exclusively on DRF.com. Keep in mind that the total cost for this play is likely to drop, given the inclusion of several also eligibles (AE) as "A" plays.
Game On Dude, runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs last November, worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds Friday, his first workout since a win in the San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 5.
Trainer Bob Baffert said that Game On Dude will make his next start in the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 3, a race the gelding won in 2011, or the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31.
“I want to wait and see the weights come out,” he said of the Big Cap. “I’ve got to keep an open mind. It’s $750,000 versus $10 million.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – At first glance, it does not appear that Hansen is scaring off the competition for the Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 3.
Though nominations weren’t scheduled to close until Saturday, the New York Racing Association’s stakes coordinator, Andrew Byrnes, has a list of nine horses that could take on the defending 2-year-old champion in the Gotham including Consortium, Chief Energy, Dan and Sheila, Done Talking, King and Crusader, My Adonis, Pretension, Raconteur, and Stealcase.
Sir Bond looked like one of the best 3-year-olds on the grounds with a breakthrough maiden route victory Thursday.
Second in his career debut at Churchill last fall, Sir Bond had finished a close second and a close third in two maiden route races at Fair Grounds, but in Thursday’s seventh race he took a serious step forward, rallying to a 7 1/4-length victory while facing 11 rivals. Sir Bond’s good 1 1/16-mile time of 1:45.12 produced a Beyer Speed Figure of 91, the highest such number for a 3-year-old route horse this winter in New Orleans.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Longview Drive completed his preparations for Monday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Friday morning, when he breezed a half-mile in 48.20 seconds. He worked first after the renovation break, and after easing into the drill came home strongly, with Oaklawn clockers catching his final quarter in 22.80 seconds. The move was the second fastest of 57 at the distance Friday.
After winning the first race on Thursday’s card in New Orleans, Rosie Napravnik found herself in what has become a familiar position: Comfortably atop the Fair Grounds jockey standings.
Napravnik, spending her first winter in New Orleans, romped in the 2010-11 jockeys’ race, her 110 victories during the season 31 more than runner-up Shaun Bridgmohan. This meet, Napravnik took a lead in the standings during opening week and has never relinquished it: After winning the first race Friday, she had 69 winners, 14 more than James Graham and 15 more than Miguel Mena.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Amazombie, the champion sprinter of 2011, will have approximately five rivals, including two other stakes winners, in his first start of the year in the $200,000 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita next Saturday.
