ARCADIA, Calif. - The scratches of expected pacesetters Coup de Coeur and Eden's Moon led trainer Walther Solis to change his strategy for Willa B Awesome in Saturday's $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita.
"I was thinking of laying third or fourth," Solis said. But he said that when he saw the scratches, he told jockey Martin Pedroza, "Let's go to the lead."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It isn’t normal operating procedure for Todd Pletcher to run a horse back on just 16 days’ rest. But the multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer pressed his good luck at this meeting with Soaring Stocks and the move paid off with a half-length victory in the $150,000 Florida Sunshine Millions sprint at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tampa Bay Downs shipper It’s Me Mom ran the champ and five other rivals off their feet in Saturday’s $150,000 Florida Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint, cruising to a convincing 6 3/4-length, wire-to-wire victory over a field that included recently named Eclipse Award winner Musical Romance.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The champion is still undefeated.
In her return to south Florida, where she launched her career as a 2-year-old, Awesome Feather poked her head in front with three furlongs remaining and then rolled to a 5 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s $300,000 Florida Sunshine Millions Distaff at Gulfstream Park.
Withgreatpleasure ran well enough during her 3-year-old campaign last season to finish second in the Grade 2 Indiana Oaks and third in the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks. She has done her best racing, however, after shuttling down the New Jersey turnpike from her base in New York to Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia.
The David Nunn-trained Withgreatpleasure, who has two wins and a second in three previous visits to Parx, will make the commute again for Tuesday’s featured ninth race, a third-level optional $40,000 claimer for fillies and mares going a flat mile.
Breaking alertly to take the lead at the outset, Redding Colliery set a brisk pace while pressed by odds-on favorite I Want Revenge, and repelled that rival through the stretch for a two-length score in the $75,000 Evening Attire Stakes, which had been postponed for a week by a snowstorm the previous Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s a good thing the 3-year-old colt Chips All In is a better racehorse than he is work horse.
The two-time stakes winner worked seven furlongs in 1:29 at Santa Anita on Saturday, a slow time that would send some trainers into a panic. Not Jeff Mullins, who timed the colt in 1:30.80. Mullins considers Chips All In to be a candidate for Saturday’s $200,000 Robert Lewis Stakes over 1 1/16 miles, and was not concerned about the slow workout time.
As a yearling, Norte Grande brought a mere $1,450 when he went through the sales ring at the Mountain Springs horse sale in Shartlesville, Pa., about 30 mile east of Penn National Race Course. Anybody could have claimed Norte Grande for a mere $9,000 out of his career debut as a 2-year-old in December 2010 or $25,000 three weeks later.
On the day the Sunshine Millions Classic was run for the 10th time – albeit under a slightly different format – last year’s Classic winner Tackleberry took another step toward his return.
Tackleberry worked four furlongs in 48 seconds at Calder Saturday morning, the fastest of 86 works at the distance. A week ago, Tackleberry worked three furlongs in a bullet 36 seconds.
“He’s coming along pretty fast,” said Luis Olivares, trainer and owner of Tackleberry. “He’s three weeks to a month away from running. He’s doing very well. So far, so good.”
Currency Swap, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, worked three furlongs in 36.60 seconds Saturday at Gulfstream, his first breeze since being sidelined with an ankle chip last fall that required surgery.
Under exercise rider and assistant trainer Luis Canrera, Currency Swap went his first eighth in 12.32 seconds, his final quarter in 24.28 seconds and he galloped out four furlongs in 50.33.
