ARCADIA, Calif. – A puzzlingly poor performance form Home Sweet Aspen in the minor Cool Air Stakes on turf at Hollywood Park earlier this month has essentially been stricken from the mind of trainer John Sadler.
“She just doesn’t like the grass,” Sadler said.
Home Sweet Aspen finished last of seven in the Cool Air Stakes over six furlongs on turf.
Instead, Sadler’s focus is on the filly’s Grade 1 debut in Saturday’s $300,000 La Brea Stakes over seven furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Richard Grunder, whose enthusiastic and informative style of calling races has made him a crowd favorite at Tampa Bay Downs for the past 27 years, returned to the announcer’s booth last Wednesday after completing an eight week rehab following surgery to repair a detached retina in his right eye.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Lentenor, a 4-year-old full brother to 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, could be headed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Tampa Bay Stakes on Feb. 25 after a victory Friday over a tough group of optional allowance turf routers.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Frolic’s Revenge was the only member in the starting lineup for Saturday’s $60,000 Ginger Brew Stakes at Gulfstream Park with Grade 1 experience, having competed in both the Alcibiades and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Yet she still went off at generous odds of 16-1 in the overnight turf stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park has been granted legislative approval to exercise a dormant nonprofit Quarter Horse license and is hoping to run one Quarter Horse race prior to its regularly scheduled Thoroughbred program on Saturday, Dec. 31.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The memorial service for Julian “Buck” Wheat will be held Wednesday, Dec. 28, at 1 p.m. Eastern in the Triple Crown room at Churchill Downs, where Wheat was employed in various capacities for more than 60 years, including the last 25 as the track’s director of horsemen’s relations. Wheat died Wednesday, Dec. 21, at age 78 from a head injury suffered in a fall at his home the previous day.
ARCADIA, Calif. – If there is strength in numbers, then trainers Steve Asmussen and Bob Baffert have been hitting the weight room when it comes to 3-year-old males for 2012 at Santa Anita. They have top-line stars and plenty of depth, so they figure to be prominent players in the division’s major stakes, right through the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 7.
Little Mike, sidelined since April by a cracked shin, ended his 2011 campaign the way it began with a game wire-to-wire victory over the Gulfstream Park turf course on Thursday.
Little Mike, who opened the year with a nose victory in the Grade 3 Ft. Lauderdale, led throughout, then withstood a final surge by Yankee Fourtune to post a similar nose decision in Thursday’s co-featured seventh race, which featured a graded stakes quality field competing under high-priced optional claiming and allowance conditions.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Three undercard stakes Monday at Santa Anita could ultimately overshadow the Grade 1 Malibu on opening day of the winter meet.
Mr. Commons, who threatens to become the top grass miler in California, will be heavily favored in race 8, the Grade 2 Sir Beaufort Stakes for 3-year-olds. Mr. Commons will take a significant drop in class following a troubled fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
