OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Six years ago, Bernardini used the Grade 3 Withers Stakes as a springboard to success in the Preakness. Saturday, one of Bernardini’s sons hopes to use the same race as a way to get into the Kentucky Derby.
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Category Seven will launch what is likely her final season of racing on Saturday night, when she drops in from Grade 1 company for the $50,000 Jersey Lily at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.
A field of 11 fillies and mares will go in the 1 1/16-mile turf race, including Pleasantly Blessed and Vickies in Town, a pair of multiple stakes winners coming off races at Fair Grounds.
Among the trio of 3-year-old fillies in Saturday’s $75,000 Marshua Stakes at Laurel Park with a stakes win to their credit, Dance to Bristol, based at Charles Town with trainer Ollie Figgins III, seems to hold a distinct advantage over Defy Gravity and Dancing Anna.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Darrin Miller expected Diez to break a little slowly and expected him to come running at the end when he launched his career going five furlongs on the turf here last month. What Miller didn’t really expect was for Diez to win the race
Miller’s expectations may be a little higher when he wheels Diez back under similar conditions in Saturday’s $60,000 Needles. The five-furlong overnight turf dash drew a field of only seven 3-year-olds which also includes stakes winners Hello Prince and Musical Flair.
Daisy Devine, one of the top older females stabled in New Orleans this winter, is back on a steady work pattern after missing a little time, and is on course to race Feb. 21 in the Mardi Gras Stakes, trainer Andrew McKeever said Wednesday.
Daisy Devine ran her career turf record to 2 for 2 with a dominant win in the Nov. 26 Pago Hop, but until she returned to the work tab on Jan. 16, the filly hadn’t posted a timed workout since that start.
Until about one month ago, trainer Andy Leggio had hoped to launch St. John’s River’s 2012 campaign in the Tiffany Lass Stakes on Feb. 11, but the start-date to the 4-year-old filly’s season has been pushed significantly back.
In early January, St. John’s River was shipped to Kentucky for throat surgery to correct a breathing problem, and she has yet to return to New Orleans, Leggio said Wednesday.
Nehro, the 2011 Kentucky Derby runner-up, is making steady progress toward his 2012 debut, according both to trainer Steve Asmussen as well as the colt’s pattern of morning workouts.
On Tuesday, Nehro breezed five furlongs in 1:03, his longest work this winter and his fourth drill since resuming serious training late last year.
“He came out of it in good shape, and he’s progressing nicely,” said Asmussen. “I like the miles he’s gotten in, and the way he’s coming along. We’re bringing this process along pretty slow because we want him to last.”
Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes drew a solid group of eight older sprinters with the two top contenders – Candyman E and Calibrachoa – returning from extended layoffs.
Candyman E went 6 for 7 in 2011 and won all four of his starts for trainer Tony Dutrow, including the $150,000 De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel on Oct. 22, his most recent race.
Dutrow said the allure of the purse was incentive to ship the horse from south Florida to New York for this six-furlong race.
Trainer Gary Hartlage said Wednesday that no next-race plans have been set for On Fire Baby, the multiple Grade 2 winner who finished third against males in the $100,000 Smarty Jones here Jan. 16.
“Depending on the weather, she’s going to work sometime this weekend, then we’ll see what’s going on from there,” Hartlage said. “We haven’t made any decisions.”
Hartlage said On Fire Baby would probably be nominated to the $75,000 Martha Washington, a one-mile race for 3-year-old fillies here Feb. 11.