HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Anunciata found graded stakes company a little more than she could handle when making her U.S. debut last fall at Churchill Downs. The Peruvian-bred should find the competition a lot more to her liking when dropping down against second-level optional claiming foes for her south Florida bow in Friday’s one-mile, $56,500 main event at Gulfstream Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – La Sombre was entered for the $100,000 Valentine Dancer Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday, a race that did not have great appeal to trainer Brian Koriner as it grew closer.
Koriner scratched the 5-year-old La Sombre in favor of an optional claimer for fillies and mares over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course on Friday. He said he hesitated in trying La Sombre in the one-mile Valentine Dancer Stakes because of a disrupted training schedule caused by wet weather in late January.
Trainer Paul Jones has two of the leading qualifiers for the $226,050 Los Alamitos World Championship on Feb. 19 with the champions Jess You and I and Noconi.
He needs both veterans to be at their best to beat a strong group of eight rivals in the 400-yard final.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin reports that Consortium exited his sixth-place finish in Sunday’s Grade 3 Holy Bull in good order but is still scratching his head a bit over the highly regarded 3-year-old prospect’s poor performance. Consortium, with jockey John Velazquez aboard, was beaten nearly 21 lengths by Algorithms over a sloppy track in the one-mile Holy Bull.
As good as Redeemed’s work was on Wednesday at Gulfstream Park, it did not earn the “bullet” as the fastest move of the morning at six furlongs. That honor went to Bold Warrior, who completed the distance in 1:11.94 while finishing well within himself under his regular rider Jose Lezcano.
Bold Warrior is a homebred son of Bernardini owned by Irving Cowan. He showed promise during a limited 3-year-old campaign that ended with a second-place finish in a one-mile overnight stakes at Belmont on Oct. 15.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The distance may be a little short, but the competition in Friday’s $75,000 Holly Springs Stakes at Aqueduct looks ideal for Big Brownie to return against in her first start off a nine-month layoff.
A multiple stakes winner against restricted company, Big Brownie faces five fellow statebred fillies and mares in the Holly Springs at six furlongs. It will be Big Brownie’s first start since she won the Cupids Way Stakes at seven furlongs at Belmont last May 4.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin could have cursed his luck when picking up the overnight and seeing he had caught the Grade 1-placed Associate with his undefeated, talented but relatively inexperienced Emcee in Friday’s ninth race at Gulfstream Park. Instead McLaughlin took the high road when it came to the surprisingly loaded entry-level allowance dash.
“I’m not really concerned who is in there,” said McLaughlin. “He [Emcee] needs to run and they have him to beat whoever shows up.”
A new $175,000 handicap for older horses and the rechristening of a $200,000 sprint in honor of locally based star Fabulous Strike highlight the 2012 stakes schedule released this week by Penn National Race Course.
The central Pennsylvania track will offer the same collective stakes purse package of $1.97 million as last year, but will run 19 stakes rather than the 21 presented in 2011. Gone are two races restricted to Pennsylvania-breds, the Docent and the Nepal, along with the Le Bagoter for 3-year-old sprinters.
Louisiana-breds and the Mississippi racing community get their due Friday at Fair Grounds. Three-year-olds who comply with the bylaws of the South Mississippi Owners and Breeders Association get a rare opportunity to run for a $40,000 purse, while far more accomplished Louisiana-breds will vie for a $45,000 pot about an hour later.
