In order to take down Quint’s Brew again in the $200,000 General George Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday, Robert Bailes said Slam Notion will have to return from a two-month layoff with the best race of his career.
With heavy snowfall and bitter cold keeping the 4-year-old gelding off the track for most of January, Bailes briefly considered pulling the colt out of the race altogether, but a four-furlong workout on Tuesday helped to set the trainer’s mind at ease.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Notwithstanding a disappointing comeback in her first start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Super Corredora will march on.
Super Corredora finished last of four starters in the Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 8 at Santa Anita, but trainer John Sadler has not lost faith in the 2025 champion 2-year-old filly. She returns to the track Thursday morning, even without a clear alibi for her below-par comeback.
The $2 million Belmont Stakes, the final leg of racing’s Triple Crown, will be the centerpiece of a five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival held June 3-7 at Saratoga that will offer 25 stakes worth $11.075 million, the New York Racing Association announced Wednesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Richard Baltas is not too concerned about a sluggish start to the Santa Anita winter meet – two wins from 37 starters, with four seconds and eight thirds.
“I’ve been in a slump,” Baltas acknowledged. “That being said, my good horses haven’t started running yet, and I know what I have in the barn.”
An arbitrator appointed by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has handed down a 24-year suspension and more than $300,000 in fines to a longtime Illinois veterinarian for nine violations that were described as a “flagrant disregard” for the sport’s medication rules.
Del Mar has made slight alterations to the stakes schedule for its summer meeting later this year, increasing the purse of its opening-day feature on July 17 – the Oceanside – to an all-time high of $150,000, the track announced Tuesday.
The conditions of the Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf have been changed from a restricted stakes to an open handicap. The purse of the race has been increased $50,000.
ARCADIA, Calif. – She paid a mere $7.80 to win, but Meaning’s victory in Sunday’s $98,000 Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita was a minor upset.
Starting for the first time since a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Oct. 31 at Del Mar, Meaning benefited from a superb trip in the Las Virgenes at a mile.
ARCADIA, Calif. – For the second consecutive year, El Potente won the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita by a convincing margin.
Last year, El Potente won the Thunder Road by three lengths in what was intended to be a prep race for the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile in March. El Potente was withdrawn from the Kilroe and did not race again until November.
Seven wins, including five stakes at three different tracks, have given trainer Todd Pletcher much to look forward to moving forward.
The run began with Nearly’s victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes on Jan. 31 at Gulfstream, continued with stakes wins by Be You and Scalable at Aqueduct last Friday, and concluded with Renegade and Zany taking the Sam F. Davis and Suncoast stakes, respectively, Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
They only won maiden races in their debuts at Tampa Bay Downs, but expect to hear plenty more from 3-year-olds Emerging Market and Always a Runner throughout the year.
Trainer Chad Brown said he had both horses rated highly among his 2-year-olds during the summer of 2025, but both were delayed getting to the races due to pneumonia.
