Wed, 02/15/2012 - 16:21

Aqueduct: Few willing to go Stymie's distance, race fails to fill

Adam Coglianese/NYRA
San Pablo runs Saturday in the one-mile As Indicated, which is replacing the 1 1/8-mile Stymie on the card.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – What a difference a furlong makes.

The $75,000 Stymie, on the stakes calendar since 1956 and run at 1 1/8 miles since Canonero II won it in 1972, was not carded as scheduled for Saturday. The primary reason was the distance.

Replacing the Stymie as the feature on Saturday is the $75,000 As Indicated, which will go at one mile. The As Indicated was initially scheduled for Thursday.

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 16:11

Gulfstream: Force Freeze heads eight in Sprint Championship

Barbara D. Livingston
Force Freeze was second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Animal Kingdom’s return to the races on Saturday at Gulfstream Park will take some of the spotlight away from the day’s feature event, the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship. The seven-furlong GP Sprint drew a field of eight topped by Force Freeze, runner-up behind Eclipse Award winner Amazombie in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Force Freeze will break from the extreme outside with jockey Paco Lopez back aboard. Lopez was replaced by John Velazquez in the Breeders’ Cup.

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 15:42

Hawthorne: Purses up, barn area crowded as spring meet opens

STICKNEY, Ill – There’s a lot riding on the 2012 winter-spring meet that begins Friday at Hawthorne Race Course. Everything, perhaps.

The 2011 spring meet here paid out average daily purses of just $119,000, a pittance in today’s slots-fueled racing world. Field size was dismal, the weather was bad, and handle lacked luster. At the annual Illinois Racing Board dates awards meeting last summer, the viability of a winter-spring meet in Chicago, which Hawthorne inherited when neighboring Sportsman’s Park went belly-up, was openly questioned.

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 15:41

Santa Anita: Frumious injured, will miss planned trip to Dubai

Shigeki Kikkawa
Frumious, winner of the Palos Verdes Stakes, has been sidelined by injury.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Frumious, winner of the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes last month, will miss an intended start in the $2 million Golden Shaheen Sprint on March 31 in Dubai after suffering a recent injury, trainer Jeff Bonde said.

The injury was detected after Frumious worked a half-mile in 46.80 seconds at Hollywood Park on Feb. 2, Bonde said. He did not elaborate on the nature of the injury, other than to say that the 6-year-old gelding “aggravated himself.”

“He’ll take a little break,” Bonde said.”I think he’ll be off for 60 days. We won’t see him until later this year.”

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 15:07

Aqueduct: This Ones for Phil could use repeat of his last outing

Bill Denver/Equi-Photo
This Ones for Phil, with Joe Bravo riding, wins the Decathlon at Monmouth Park.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – This Ones for Phil may not be the same horse he was in his youth, when he took the Grade 2 Swale and back-to-back runnings of the Sunshine Millions Sprint.

But if the gelding, now 6 years old, can run the race back that he did last month winning an optional claimer over the inner track, that could be good enough to win a high-priced claimer that serves as the Friday feature on Aqueduct’s nine-race card.

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 14:54

Kentucky Derby: Whiting back with another shot 20 years after victory

Coady Photography/Oaklawn Park
Cyber Secret scores a front-running victory in a first-level allowance at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 4.

It’s usually the first question anyone asks Lynn Whiting when they meet him and find out he’s a racehorse trainer: “Have you ever won the Kentucky Derby?” Fortunately, he can answer yes.

Twenty years ago, Whiting achieved the dream of every trainer when he won the Derby, with the longshot Lil E. Tee, who gave another local favorite of Kentucky, Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, his lone win in America’s greatest race. Day has long since retired, but Whiting, now 72, is still making the rounds at the barn, every morning.

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 14:24

Santa Anita: Points Offthebench returns in prep for Echo Eddie Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – It is the last Saturday in March that has become the immediate springtime focus for the owners and trainers of California-bred 3-year-olds.

The March 31 program at Santa Anita includes the first running of the $200,000 Echo Eddie Stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds over 6 1/2 furlongs, a race that is part of the newly formed Golden State Series.

“It’s definitely on our calendar,” trainer Tim Yakteen said.

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 13:39

Gulfstream: Animal Kingdom to return Saturday in turf allowance

Barbara D. Livingston
Animal Kingdom has been training at Palm Meadows for his 2012 debut.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Last year it was Uncle Mo. This winter it will be Animal Kingdom who will use a race at Gulfstream Park as a prep for his first major goal of the season when Animal Kingdom, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Eclipse Award as top 3-year-old male, launches his 2012 campaign in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming and allowance event over the turf here Saturday. Trainer Graham Motion is pointing Animal Kingdom for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31.

Wed, 02/15/2012 - 13:08

Fair Grounds: Private Prayer in for tag in turf sprint

Even if Pat Devereux Jr. sends out Private Prayer to a mild upset of the Friday feature at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, the Kentucky native probably won’t be in the win photo.

“I’m only in the picture if we have no other representation,” said Devereux, an old-school private trainer for the Coteau Grove Farms of Keith and Ginger Myers. “That’s the way the trainers did it back in the day.”

Tue, 02/14/2012 - 16:15

Oaklawn: Southwest may wind up split

Tom Keyser
Secret Circle, with Rafael Bejarano riding, wins the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Secret Circle and Longview Drive were among four Southern California-based 3-year-olds who flew into Arkansas on Tuesday in advance of the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn on Monday. The shippers, along with local stakes winner Junebugred, who breezed a bullet half-mile Tuesday, top a list of 21 probables for the one-mile Southwest, which has a good chance of being split into two divisions. If it is, each division will be a Grade 3, and each will have a purse of $250,000, said David Longinotti, the assistant general manager for racing at Oaklawn.