NEW ORLEANS – Havre de Grace, the 2011 Horse of the Year, will make her first start of the new year in the Grade 3, $150,000 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 17, owner Rick Porter and trainer Larry Jones said Wednesday.
Porter released the news on the website of his Fox Hill Farm.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’s three biggest days will be bigger than ever this year with stakes being added to the Queen’s Plate, Woodbine Mile, and Canadian International programs.
The changes were made public with Wednesday’s release of the stakes schedule for the 2012 meeting, which consists of 102 guaranteed stakes worth a total of $23 million.
A backstretch worker at Gulfstream Park has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault for severely injuring a hotwalker during a late-night fight over the weekend.
Enrique Rodriguez is in jail in Broward County after being charged with aggravated assault and tampering with evidence, according to Capt. Pedro Abut, a public information officer for the Hallandale police. According to Abut, Rodriguez claimed that the victim, Transito Salazar, was his uncle. The two were roommates in a Gulfstream dorm.
When Daisy Devine won a $30,000 maiden-claiming race in the second start of her career, she already had earned back the $5,500 owner James Miller paid for her at auction. The rest has been gravy -- and there has been plenty of it.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - On Fire Baby, a leading Kentucky Oaks candidate based at Oaklawn, breezed five furlongs in a bullet 59.80 seconds Monday. She is continuing her preparations for a start in next month’s Grade 3, $125,000 Honeybee on March 10.
On Fire Baby worked first after the renovation break, under regular rider Joe Johnson. She backtracked to the sixteenth pole upon coming out on the track, then galloped to the backstretch before going into her work with good energy, getting her first eighth of a mile in 11.80 seconds, according to Oaklawn’s head clocker, Jim Hamilton.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Hamazing Destiny will prep for next month’s $75,000 Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Thursday, when he runs in the featured eighth race. He is one of six older horses set to start in the third-level allowance sprint that carries an optional claiming price of $75,000.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Adirondack King, who shipped in Oaklawn from Florida for trainer John Servis, closed from ninth for third in the second division of the Southwest on Monday. He finished six lengths behind Secret Circle and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 91.
“As of right now, I think we’re going to leave him out here and try the Rebel,” Servis said Tuesday.
Adirondack King broke from post 2 in a field of 10, and was ridden by Stewart Elliott.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Scatman, who finished a half-length behind Secret Circle in second in the Southwest, will likely make his next start in the Rebel, his trainer, Mike Lauer, said on Tuesday.
Scatman took the Southwest field through an opening half-mile in 46.80 seconds, was joined by Secret Circle to midstretch, then was overtaken. For the effort, Scatman earned a Beyer of 101.
“It was his first time two turns and he ran very good,” Lauer said. “I hope there’s improvement there.
“He seems to have come out of the race good and the logical spot is the Rebel.”
Three horses entered in Saturday’s Mineshaft Handicap, including 2011 Louisiana Derby winner Pants On Fire, have been withdrawn from the race, Fair Grounds stakes coordinator Scott Jones confirmed. Pants On Fire was to have shipped to New Orleans from Florida on Wednesday, but won’t be making the trip.
Trainer Kelly Breen didn’t immediately respond to a phone message asking why Pants On Fire, who was to have made his 2012 debut, was out of the race.
Also coming out of the Mineshaft is California-based Gladding and another Florida horse, Cool Blue Red Hot.
While Larry Jones’s 3-year-olds all worked after the break on Monday at Fair Grounds, 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace was out as soon as the track opened at 6 a.m. to put in her most serious drill of 2012. Havre de Grace had her first five-furlong breeze of the year, working in a bullet 59.80 seconds.
