The Factor, who won the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes on Dec. 26 for his fourth career stakes win, will skip Saturday’s $150,000 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita in favor of a race in February or March.
Trainer Bob Baffert said on Monday that The Factor is being considered for the $2 million Golden Shaheen for sprinters in Dubai on March 31, but could stay in California and start in the $200,000 San Carlos Stakes over seven furlongs on Feb. 25. The Malibu was run over seven furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Reneesgotzip, the undefeated 3-year-old filly, will start around two turns for the first time in the $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes over a mile on March 3, trainer Peter Miller said.
The race may define how the speedy Reneesgotzip is campaigned through the spring. So far, she has proved to be untouchable.
Sunday, Reneesgotzip had a wildly successful stakes debut, winning the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs by 7 3/4 lengths, pulling clear through the stretch for her second career win.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The champion sprinter of 2011 has a slight identity problem around the Bill Spawr stable at Santa Anita.
The nameplate on his halter has read AMAZOMBEI for months and not AMAZOMBIE. When the error was noticed, Spawr and his team were offered a revised halter. It was not allowed under the shedrow. Blame superstition, but Amazombie has had too much success with the misspelled halter.
“They brought a new one with the correct spelling,” Spawr recalled last weekend. “We said, ‘Oh, no. We don’t want it.’ ”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Norvsky’s affection for Santa Anita’s turf course gave the veteran gelding his first graded stakes win in Monday’s $150,000 San Gabriel Stakes, a victory that caught trainer Don Warren by surprise.
Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Norvsky ($8.20) closed from fifth in a field of six to win the Grade 2 San Gabriel by 1 1/2 lengths over 7-10 Jeranimo. The Usual Q. T., who harassed Jeranimo on the lead down the backstretch, finished third.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Junebugred put himself on the 3-year-old fast track Monday at Oaklawn Park, when he won the $100,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park by a neck over Reckless Jerry. It was another length back in third to the multiple Grade 2 winning filly and favorite On Fire Baby.
The Smarty Jones was the first prep on Oaklawn's road to the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, and Junebugred's connections said he will be pointed toward the series. The horse could run next in the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest Stakes on Feb. 20.
Millionaire Bold Chieftain fell a nose short of front-running Dunmore East in the final race of his career Monday at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Calif.
The 9-year-old horse, who will begin his stud career at Victory Rose Farm in nearby Vacaville, Calif., next week, finished his career with 18 victories, 14 seconds, and 4 thirds in 47 starts while earning $1,683,181.
Two good-looking recent Fair Grounds maiden route winners, Avie’s Sense and Tetradrachm, won’t be racing in Saturday stakes.
Avie’s Sense, who ran the fastest one mile, 70 yards of the 2011-2012 meet when she won a Jan. 5 maiden race, almost certainly won’t contest the Silverbulletday Stakes on Saturday, trainer Josie Carroll said.
“It’s a little quick back, just 15 days,” said Carroll. “I’ll probably just aim her for the Rachel Alexandra.”
Cherokee Queen turned in what might have been the best turf performance of the Fair Grounds meet when she won Saturday’s Marie Krantz Memorial by 1 1/4 lengths, but the 7-year-old mare still is destined for life as a broodmare sometime this winter, trainer Steve Margolis said Sunday.
“She’s definitely going to be bred this year,” said Margolis. “It’s a question of whether we’re going to run her one more time.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Three days after winning a race in which he was eligible to be claimed for $75,000, King and Crusader won a stakes race worth $75,000.
King and Crusader, under Cornelio Velasquez, rallied past the front-runners Yo Koffy and Deliburnsky at the eighth pole and had more than enough to hold off stablemate Reserved Quality to win the $75,000 Jimmy Winkfield by three-quarters of a length at Aqueduct.
TORONTO – Fort Erie, which originally planned to downsize its 2012 meeting to 69 days, has restored the seven “lost” dates in an agreement between the Ontario HBPA and the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium.
The meeting will begin May 6 and will now run through Oct. 30, after originally having been scheduled to conclude Oct. 16.
