Mucho Macho Man had his final major tune-up for next Saturday’s Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap when working five furlongs from the half-mile to mile pole in 58.80 seconds early Friday morning. Mucho Macho Man, winner of the Sunshine Millions Classic to launch his 4-year-old season, posted splits of 23.80 and 46.60 for his opening quarter and half.
“He’s doing great, he couldn’t be coming up to the race any better,” trainer Kathy Ritvo said.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – The professional theme of 2011 was one of frustration for Los Alamitos-based trainer Jose Antonio Flores. He ended the year without a major stakes win, but it was not for a lack of trying.
“I qualified to everything last year,” he said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $70,000 Ladies Turf Sprint is the feature race here Sunday, but it will be the return of Soldat that highlights the card.
Soldat will be making his first start since finishing 11th in the 2011 Kentucky Derby. He’ll also be moving back to the turf to kick off his 4-year-old campaign, going 1 1/16 miles under high-priced optional claiming conditions in Sunday’s sixth race.
The hits keep coming. The week after the Kentucky legislature turned down yet another effort from the racing industry and its partners to allow casino gaming in the state to come to a popular vote, there was bad news for Turfway Park, which has seemed to move ever closer to the brink of extinction with a multitude of factors working against it.
Purses for seven stakes for 2- and 3-year-olds have been raised for the upcoming spring-summer meeting at Hollywood Park, the track announced on Friday.
The 50-day meeting runs from April 26 to July 15.
The Grade 1 American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/4 miles on turf on July 14 will be worth $400,000, an increase of $150,000 from the 2011 meeting. The American Oaks had its lowest purse in 2011, at $250,000, and was worth $750,000 from 2003 to 2008.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Suzzona is a throwback to another era, when trainers thought nothing of loading their horses on a van and shipping them around from track to track to find the right race. On Sunday, Suzzona, who made 10 starts at nine different racetracks in 2011, will return to Gulfstream Park, where she will be among the favorites to win the $70,000 Ladies Turf Sprint. The Ladies Turf will be decided at five furlongs on grass, weather permitting, and drew a full field of 10, including Broken Dreams, whose previous start came against males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Nine stakes that had to be sacrificed when Finger Lakes lost $700,000 in purse supplements from the New York Thoroughbred Breeders and Development Fund have been restored for the 2012 season.
The western New York state track announced a 13-event stakes schedule earlier this week with an estimated total value of $1.05 million, thanks the restoration of the funds that were unavailable in 2011. All of the added-money events are restricted to New York-breds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - - Sunday’s program at Gulfstream Park will feature the return of another prominent member of the 3-year-old class of 2011, Fountain of Youth winner Soldat, who moves back to the grass for his 2012 debut. Soldat, who has not started since finishing a tiring 11th in last year’s Kentucky Derby, won his maiden at 2 in the Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes on grass and also finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Remington Park will have an early post of 5 p.m. Central on Saturday to accommodate 15 trial races for the Grade 2, $325,000 Oklahoma Futurity. The finale is March 17.
Every horse running in Saturday night’s trials is a first-time starter. Each of the $10,000 trials will be run at 300 yards.
The Oklahoma Futurity is the longest-running futurity in Quarter Horse racing, dating back to 1947.
For those who like playing first-time starters, there will be an abundance of them running on Saturday at Louisiana Downs. The track will put on seven trials for one of its richest Quarter Horse races of the meet, the Harrah’s Futurity on March 18.
Last year, the finale was worth $249,379.
