ARCADIA, Calif. – Fashionably Fast has run his last race.
A six-time stakes winner against California-breds, Fashionably Fast was sent to co-owner and breeder John Harris’s farm in Coalinga, Calif., last week to begin his retirement, trainer Dean Pederson said Monday.
Fashionably Fast won 10 of 33 starts and earned $807,143 in a five-year career from 2018-22.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – General Banker will be stepping up in class though he’ll be running for 70 percent less purse money when he starts in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.
General Banker is coming off a monster 8 1/2-length victory in the $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Dec. 17. That seven-furlong race was restricted to progeny of stallions based in New York. The Jerome will be General Banker’s ninth start, the first outside of restricted company.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s Harlan’s Holiday Stakes did indeed serve its purpose as a prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, with the top four finishers all potential candidates for Gulfstream Park’s marquee event on Jan. 28.
Skippylongstocking won the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday by two widening lengths over a game Pioneer of Medina, with Simplification finishing third and O’Connor fourth as the 6-5 favorite. Skippylongstocking earned a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure for his performance in his 3-year-old finale.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - An upset in Sunday’s final race triggered a late pick-5 carryover of $189,194 into Thursday’s Aqueduct card.
There are only eight races Thursday, so the late pick-5, a 50-cent minimum wager, will start on race 4 (2:16 p.m. Eastern).
ARCADIA, Calif. – The final lunch hour of 2022 will be difficult to top anytime soon for the Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners syndicate.
At 12:01 p.m. at Santa Anita on Saturday, the Eclipse-owned Air Force Red took an early lead in the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside turf course and proved too fast to catch, winning by 1 3/4 lengths.
At 12:57 p.m., Queen Goddess, also owned by Eclipse, had a similar front-running trip in the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf and won by 2 1/2 lengths.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The undefeated stakes winner Olivia Twist is settled in at Oaklawn Park and pointing for the track’s stakes series for 3-year-old fillies, according to her trainer, Todd Fincher.
Oaklawn's first Kentucky Oaks points race is the $200,000 Martha Washington on Jan. 28. Oaklawn’s other points races for the Kentucky Oaks are the Grade 3, $300,000 Honeybee on Feb. 25 and the Grade 3, $600,000 Fantasy on April 1.
Golden Gate Fields canceled racing on Sunday for the second consecutive day following more than 24 hours of heavy rainfall in the San Francisco-Oakland area.
With dry conditions forecast for Sunday, the track intends to race on Monday, according to general manager David Duggan.
Areas near the track recorded approximately five inches of rain from early Friday to midnight on Saturday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Due to heavy rain Saturday night, Santa Anita canceled racing for Sunday and postponed the Grade 3 Santa Ynez Stakes by one week. The sprint for 3-year-old fillies will be run Jan. 8, one week later than scheduled.
Fair Grounds canceled its Friday race card shortly before scheduled first post at 1:15 p.m. Central.
A news release from the Churchill Downs Inc.-owned property didn’t explicitly state the reason for the cancellation, saying the decision to scrap the eight-race program came “following excessive rain overnight and throughout the morning.”
The release described the cancellation as a “joint decision” after a “consultation between track management and the stewards.”
Jace’s Road took a huge step forward winning the Gun Runner Stakes by 5 1/2 lengths, earning a career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure – and still might not have been the most impressive Brad Cox-trained 2-year-old colt to race Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds.
A few hours before Jace’s Road won the 1 1/16-mile Gun Runner, Corona Bolt rated while leading through a solid early pace before zipping a strong final quarter-mile in 24.04 for a final clocking of 1:09.96, romping by nearly seven lengths in the six-furlong Sugar Bowl.
