Havre de Grace, an overwhelming favorite to be named champion older female of 2011 and a leading Horse of the Year contender, arrived at Fair Grounds about 5:30 Thursday morning after travelling by van from the Vinery farm near Ocala, Fla.
Havre de Grace was tired from her journey and slept in her stall Thursday morning, but she has been in light training at Vinery and figures to be ready in coming days to begin steady exercise.
Turfway Park showed an increase in gross handle – both from all-sources and ontrack – at the recently ended holiday meet, but daily averages were down at the Dec. 1-31 meet.
The Florence, Ky., track ran 20 dates at the 2011 holiday meet, compared to 17 in 2010. Gross all-sources handle was $45.6 million, an increase of 13 percent compared to the same period in 2010, but the per-day handle of $2,282,263 was down 4 percent. Likewise, the gross ontrack handle of $2,222,148 was up 12 percent while the per-day average was down nearly 5 percent.
Pomeroys Pistol, popular winner of the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl on Dec. 10, breezed a bullet half-mile in 48.22 seconds to top the Wednesday work tab at Palm Meadows. Pomeroys Pistol may return in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie on Feb. 19.
The Hurricane Bertie also could mark the 2012 debut of Her Smile, third-place finisher in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Hurricane Bertie was purchased by Frank Stronach for $1 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale and turned over to trainer Chad Brown.
Trainer Tony Dutrow said his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Grace Hall is doing well and is expected to make her 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 Davona Dale on Feb. 25.
“I’m super happy with her right now,” Dutrow said. “She’s been back with me at Palm Meadows since Dec. 1, but I’m still not sure when she’ll have her first workout. At the moment, I think it would be a mistake not to be pointing her to the [Kentucky] Oaks, and the Davona Dale looks like a great starting point.”
[bc_video_id:241402:]An appearance in Saturday’s $150,000 San Pasqual Stakes will be an experiment for Utopian, a 5-year-old gelding trained by John Shirreffs.
Utopian will make his stakes debut in the Grade 2 San Pasqual, having won two of six starts for owners Jerry and Ann Moss. The wins came in a maiden race over 6 1/2 furlongs on the synthetic track at Del Mar last July and an optional claimer over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Hollywood Park on Nov. 25, Utopian’s most recent start.
The San Pasqual Stakes is run over 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
Havre de Grace, an overwhelming favorite to be named champion older female of 2011 and a leading Horse of the Year contender, is scheduled to arrive early Thursday morning at Fair Grounds following a post-Breeders’ Cup freshening, trainer Larry Jones told the track publicity staff Wednesday.
Havre de Grace, Jones said, will be pointed to a comeback race on March 17 in the $100,000 New Orleans Ladies Stakes at Fair Grounds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Congo won all three of his inner-track starts last winter for Todd Pletcher, but not much has gone right since then for the 4-year-old colt, who figures to be a lukewarm choice in Friday’s $56,000 optional claiming feature at a mile and 70 yards.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The addition of blinkers should help Longview Drive stay focused on chasing the pacesetters in Saturday’s $100,000 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita. He will have a formidable target in front of him in the early stages of the one-mile race for 3-year-olds.
Secret Circle, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint at Churchill Downs in November, will be heavily favored in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes. Trained by Bob Baffert, Secret Circle has not started since the BC Juvenile Sprint. The Sham will be his first start around two turns.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Runflatout showed promise at times during his 3-year-old season last year, but also left West Point Thoroughbreds and trainer John Sadler frustrated.
Runflatout had one win in seven starts during the season, a maiden race at Santa Anita in January. He later placed in two stakes. After a third at 3-5 in an allowance race at Santa Anita in September, Runflatout had one testicle removed. He remains a ridgling, with one undescended testicle, Sadler said.
New year, same old result for record-setting Rapid Redux, who dashed to his 22nd consecutive victory in the sixth race on Wednesday at Laurel Park.
