HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Union Rags got closer to Hansen in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, missing by a head despite a somewhat eventful trip, than he did in the Eclipse Award voting for last year’s 2-year-old champion. The result surprised many, including Michael Matz, the trainer of Union Rags.
Keeneland Race Course on Thursday released the stakes schedule for its 2012 spring meet with very little change from tradition, with the Grade 1, $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes serving as the highlight of a 15-day meet at the Lexington, Ky., track.
A turnback in distance could result in different tactics from That’s Who, a speedy front-runner who will be seeking his third career stakes win Saturday when he starts in the $110,000 Pepsi-Cola at Sunland Park.
The Pepsi-Cola is a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds bred in New Mexico. A field of 10 will go, including E Bar Way, a stakes winner at Zia Park, and Honshu City, a stakes winner at the Downs at Albuquerque.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has the filly to beat in Saturday’s $100,000 California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields.
But which of his three entrants is it?
Is it Lady of Fifty, who has won the six-furlong Golden Gate Debutante and one-mile Corte Madera in wire-to-wire fashion in her past two starts?
Is it Sweet Nothings, who followed up a maiden victory on the turf with a runner-up effort against Lady of Fifty in the Corte Madera, losing by a half-length?
ARCADIA, Calif. - Amazombie, the champion sprinter of 2011, was scratched from Saturday’s $200,000 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita after rain fell early in the day.
Trainer Bill Spawr said repeatedly in the build-up to the Grade 2 Palos Verdes that he was reluctant to start Amazombie if considerable rain fell and the track was left as wet-fast, and firm.
With an hour to post time for Saturday’s first race, the track was listed as wet-fast, with the possibility of further rain through the afternoon.
List of contenders for the 2012 Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs, ranked by graded stakes earnings. The Kentucky Derby field is limited to 20 horses; if more than 20 enter, the entries are determined by the amount of graded stakes earnings each horse has accumulated.
[MORE: Derby Watch Top 20 Contenders]
[MORE: Road to the 2012 Kentucky Derby]
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita chairman Frank Stronach told the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday that the track will remain open for racing and will not be subject to development in the future.
Stronach and racing board chairman Keith Brackpool met earlier in the week to discuss the track’s future, with discussions expected to continue in coming months, the two men said.
Probably the most important question regarding the $75,000 Pan Zareta Stakes is this: Will it or not? Will the rain come hard enough to force the 5 1/2-furlong race off the turf and onto the main track?
“If it does, we won’t run,” said Jeff Thornbury, who would seem to have the horse to beat in Wild About Marie if the Pan Zareta stays on the grass Saturday at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
Lotta Lovin had been moderately productive for Buck Butler after he and his partners made a private purchase of the filly following a dominating victory in a June maiden race at Presque Isle Downs. Lotta Lovin quickly won a Calder allowance race, but then the best she could do from three stakes efforts was a fourth-place finish.
