Devious Intent, who won the $75,000 Genesis at Delta Downs in her last start Jan. 14, was to ship to Oaklawn on Wednesday to begin preparations for the $75,000 Martha Washington, trainer Bret Calhoun said. The one-mile race for 3-year-old fillies will be run Feb. 11.
“We want to get up there and train over that track,” Calhoun said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Miss Alphie lost all seven starts before she was retired from racing. Zoom Zip Zoom lost twice and was finished. Thank goodness for residual value.
Though neither filly made it to the winner’s circle, both succeeded as broodmares. Miss Alphie produced multiple stakes winner Alphie’s Bet and recent maiden winner Unusual Heatwave, while Zoom Zip Zoom’s first foal is the flashy maiden winner Tenacious Thomas.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Majestic Stride has put himself in the picture for next month’s Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, following his flashy maiden special weight win here Sunday. Majestic Stride defeated mostly older rivals and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 83.
“He’s a talented horse,” trainer Jeff Bonde said Tuesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Midnight Transfer has run in his last sprint race for the foreseeable future after winning Sunday’s San Pedro Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.
Trainer Carla Gaines said after the race that Midnight Transfer will make his next start in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 10. The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes is the final major prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7.
“He just loves this track,” Gaines said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Favorites are winning at better than a 40-percent clip (119 for 292) on the inner track this winter, and there will be no shortage of short-priced propositions on Thursday. Token Sacrifice (1st race), Surround Sound (2nd), Union Victory (3rd) and Tycoon Cat (9th) are all pegged at even money or lower by Eric Donovan, the New York Racing Association’s Wizard of Odds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Following a solid debut win at Aqueduct in late November, Almusafa attempted the always difficult step up in class when put into a stakes race for her second start.
Though beaten only 1 1/4 lengths when fifth in the Ginger Brew Stakes here on Christmas Eve, Almusafa now drops in class when she heads a nine-horse field entered to run in a first-level optional claimer Thursday at Gulfstream Park. The 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies is the featured event on a 10-race card that begins at 12:35 p.m. Eastern.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Arienza, daughter of 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri, who was to make her seasonal debut Sunday at Oaklawn in the $50,000 American Beauty, scratched from that race and will instead return in a more conservative spot Thursday.
Arienza will lead a $40,000 optional claiming sprint that carries second-level allowance conditions. The six-furlong race was offered as an extra over the weekend. It drew seven fillies and mares versus the 11 that went in the American Beauty that Gleaming won with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 91.
When the Chris Block stable breaks camp in Chicago for the winter, the head trainer remains home while some of his higher-quality stock heads south to Florida and Louisiana.
“Chris doesn’t want to miss his son growing up, so he stays in Chicago,” said Neil Pessin, who has seven of the Block runners at Fair Grounds in New Orleans again this winter.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has saddled three Kentucky Oaks winners, Lite Light, Pike Place Dancer and his Eclipse Award winner Blind Luck. He knows about 3-year-old fillies.
On Saturday, the Hollendorfer-trained Lady of Fifty completed a sweep of Golden Gate Fields’s series of stakes for fillies born in 2009 by taking the 1 1/16-mile California Oaks in wire-to-wire style. Earlier, Lady of Fifty had won the six-furlong Golden Gate Debutante and the one-mile Corte Madera.
Hollendorfer said there aren’t any suitable races left for Lady of Fifty at Golden Gate.
Golden Gate Fields interim general manager Joe Morris and new racing secretary David Jerkens said before the current meet started that they hoped to add stakes races to the calendar.
Saturday’s $50,000 Albany Stakes is a their first addition to the stakes calendar, and the six-furlong Tapeta race should be a tremendous affair. The Albany matches longtime rivals Sourdough Sam and Shudacudawudya, who ran one-two in last October’s Oakland Stakes, Golden Gate’s only sprint stakes for older runners in 2011.
