ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Simon Callaghan says it is vital that Falcon Rock starts in Friday’s second race at Santa Anita, an optional claimer over 1 1/4 miles on turf. Such long-distance turf races have become rare in Southern California, and Falcon Rock hasn’t raced since November.
“We’ve been waiting ages,” Callaghan said.
Callaghan has two of the six entrants, including Slim Shadey, who won a first condition optional claimer over 1 1/4 miles on turf Jan. 12.
Lone Star Park has discontinued its annual Million Day program of stakes for 2012, but that card’s traditional anchor, the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, will again be run on Memorial Day. The race will be linked with two other stakes, one at Lone Star and one at Remington Park, by an owner-trainer bonus of $20,000.
Lone Star, located in the Dallas area, was purchased in May 2011 by Global Gaming Solutions, the owner of Remington Park in Oklahoma City. Global Gaming is a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation, which is based in Ada, Okla.
It isn’t often that the richest race on a Friday card is the first, but that’s what six-horse fields will do to a racing secretary. A second-level optional $40,000 claimer with a $51,000 purse will be run at Fair Grounds before most folks can enjoy their soup du jour, a testament to the overall strength – or lack thereof – of what’s on tap Friday at the New Orleans track.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Graham Motion was awakened about 3 a.m. Wednesday by the sound of rain pounding on the roof of his home. As the rain continued for the better part of an hour, Motion lay awake thinking that his plan to work his 3-year-old champion Animal Kingdom a few hours later would have to be changed.
Or, as Motion succinctly put it, “I thought we were screwed.”
There will be at least two south-Florida based Kentucky Derby prospects heading to Tampa next week for Tampa Bay Downs' Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes. Trainer Ian Wilkes is pointing his Neck 'n Neck in that direction, as is Jimmy Toner with his recently acquired Chief Energy.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Distorted Legacy, beaten three-quarters of a length when fourth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, worked four furlongs in 51.10 seconds over the Palm Meadows turf course Tuesday.
Before the Breeders' Cup, Distorted Legacy, trained by Angel Penna Jr., finished second to Stacelita in the Flower Bowl.
Penna said he one possible early-season spot for Distorted Legacy is the Bewitch at Keeneland with a likely prep race at Gulfstream beforehand.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Get Stormy, a multiple Grade 1 winning turf horse of 2011, worked five furlongs in 1:03.05 over the Palm Meadows turf course Tuesday morning. He is preparing for his 2012 debut, which is expected to come in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap on Feb. 11.
Get Stormy and several other horses came on the turf just as the skies opened up and dumped some heavy showers. Though the turf course was labeled firm, divots were popping up all over the place.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - The only horse to work five furlongs faster than Union Rags here at Palm Meadows on Tuesday was Take Charge Indy, a 3-year-old colt who went five furlongs in 59.78 seconds, pulling away late from a workmate.
Take Charge Indy, a son of Grade 1 winners A.P. Indy and Take Charge Lady, has not run since finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - While Union Rags won't be participating in Gulfstream Park's first graded stakes for 3-year-olds this year, he took another step Tuesday morning to being ready to go for the second.
Union Rags, the Grade 1 Champagne winner and Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up, worked five furlongs in 1:00.82 over the main track at Palm Meadows Tuesday morning. It was the second-fastest of 28 recorded works at the distance on a warm, cloudy, and sometimes rainy morning.
The release of about $140 million in casino impact fees to the Illinois racing industry late last summer has boosted the Arlington Park 2012 stakes schedule, with Arlington hoping to run four more stakes than it did in 2011 while offering stakes purses worth $5.8 million, $1,325,000 more than the track paid during its 2011 season.
Arlington released a proposed 2012 stakes schedule Tuesday that won’t be finalized until the Illinois Racing Board gives its approval. The schedule will be considered at the IRB’s meeting on Jan. 31.
