A pair of 5-year-old mares, one trying to regain the form that made her a graded stakes winner two seasons ago after being sidelined for nearly a year and the other a stakes winner in each of her last two route races locally, look like the prime players in Saturday’s $100,000 Maryland Racing Media Stakes at Laurel Park.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby headlines six stakes totaling $600,000 on Sept. 9 and will clearly be the highlight of the 2012 Hastings season. The 71-day meet begins April 14 and finishes Oct. 14.
Hastings has scheduled 40 stakes races worth a total of $2.45 million, a slight drop from $2.5 million in 2011 when 41 stakes races were held.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Swag Daddy, who scratched out of last Saturday's Withers because of what trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. called a "foot issue," is entered back to run in Saturday's $75,000 Sweet Envoy Stakes, a race restricted to 3-year-old New York-breds.
Swag Daddy has already won two straight New York-bred stakes and could be using this as a prep to the Gotham on March 4. Dutrow is also considering running Jimmy Winkfield Stakes winner King and Crusader in the Gotham.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - As expected, the undefeated New York-bred Agave Kiss did not enter Saturday's $75,000 Dearly Precious Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. While the six-furlong race still drew only a meager five-horse field, the race should be competitive.
Well Kept and Corderosa, second and third, respectively, behind Agave Kiss in the Ruthless Stakes on Jan. 14, are back for the Dearly Precious.
Singlet, who has won 3 of 4 starts for trainer Tony Dutrow, is likely to be sent off the favorite following her six-length victory in the Xtra Heat Stakes here on Jan. 5.
Delaware Park will experiment by starting its season almost two weeks later than usual and racing on Thursdays rather than Tuesdays during its 75th year of live racing in 2012.
The track, located just south of Wilmington, will race 100 days from Saturday, May 12 to Nov. 3. Last year, Delaware hosted 106 days of live racing from April 30 to Saturday, Nov. 5.
The four-day-a-week racing schedule will run Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday with first post time of 1:15 p.m. Eastern.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Empire Way, second to I’ll Have Another in the Grade 2 Robert Lewis Stakes last Saturday at Santa Anita, will be pointed for the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes on March 10.
Trainer Mike Harrington said on Wednesday that Empire Way has been “hard to keep on the ground” since the Lewis Stakes. In the Lewis, run over 1 1/16 miles, Empire Way closed from last in a field of eight to finish 2 3/4 lengths behind 43-1 winner I’ll Have Another.
“I’m very happy with the second,” Harrington said. “The one thing, he was closing ground on a speed-favoring track.”
It was a good night at Delta Downs last Saturday for the Bret Calhoun barn, which won a pair of rich Louisiana-bred sprint stakes with Su Casa G Casa and Speedacious.
Speedacious’s five-length victory in the Matron, a race she also won in 2011, was particularly sharp, and gave the mare three straight victories. Speedacious, a 5-year-old, won the 2009 Louisiana Champions Day Lassie by 12 lengths, earning an exceptional Beyer Speed Figure of 102, but her career went up and down until Speedacious has gained racing skill through maturity.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Richard Mandella's stable has already had a successful start to the month with older horses.
Setsuko, gelded last summer, won his first start in five months in an allowance race at Santa Anita last Saturday. Second in a roughly-run Santa Anita Handicap last March, Setsuko is being pointed for the Big Cap on March 3.
The multiple Grade 2-winning filly On Fire Baby galloped 1 1/2 miles Wednesday morning at Oaklawn in her first day back to the track after breezing five furlongs in a bullet 59.80 seconds Monday. Trainer Gary Hartlage said she emerged from the workout in “super” condition, and he liked how she trained Wednesday under regular rider Joe Johnson.
“She went really good,” Hartlage said. “Joe was on her, and he said she came out of the work really good.”
