Twice the Appeal, winner of the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby but unraced since finishing 10th in the Kentucky Derby, may start in the $150,000 Sir Beaufort Stakes over a mile on turf on Dec. 26.
Trainer Jeff Bonde said on Friday that Twice the Appeal is “50-50” for the Sir Beaufort.
“He’s been seven-eighths and we’re getting pretty close,” Bonde said of Twice the Appeal’s recent workouts. “Right now, I’m just thinking.”
Turbulent Descent, the winner of two Grade 1 races earlier this year, worked six furlongs in 1:12.20 at Hollywood Park on Saturday, leading trainer Mike Puype to predict a victory for her next start, the $300,000 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 31.
“She’ll redeem herself on the 31st,” Puype said. “I have no doubt about it.”
Westover Wildcat, who began his 4-year-old campaign in January by winning a third-level optional $40,000 claimer at Parx Racing, will try to end his season the same way in Monday’s featured eighth race at the suburban Philadelphia track.
Locally based with trainer Tony Dutrow, Westover Wildcat is the logical choice going six furlongs under the exact conditions in which he scored by a half-length as the even-money favorite on Jan. 4. He is among four horses in the field of 10 entered for the optional $40,000 claiming tag.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Funeral services will be held in Las Vegas on Monday for horse owner Frank Regina.
A native of New York, Regina died of cancer on Tuesday. He was 73. He was a retired craps dealer who worked at Caesars Palace.
Even though he lived in Las Vegas, Regina was a fixture at Southern California tracks, particularly at Del Mar each summer. He even had a horse named after him. Frankie Eyelashes won 6 of 29 starts racing in California and Arizona from 2001 to 2004.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Ruben Gomez has been fined $3,000 and suspended for 30 days, beginning on Dec. 26, after one of his starters at Fairplex Park tested in excess of the permitted level of clenbuterol.
The overage was found in a postrace test taken from Mr. River of Dreams, who finished sixth in the fourth race on Sept. 25 but was disqualified and placed eighth for causing interference in the half-mile race.
Gomez’s suspension begins on Dec. 26 and continues through Jan. 24. The 36-year-old trainer has one victory from 121 starters this year, through Thursday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Doug O’Neill became the ninth trainer to win 500 races at Hollywood Park when Pop the Cork won a maiden claimer in Thursday’s eighth race. Earlier in the day, O’Neill won his 499th race at Hollywood Park when Liberal Arts won a $10,000 claimer.
O’Neill, 43, joins a list of trainers with 500 wins led by the late Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel, who won 952 races at Hollywood Park. Other trainers with 500 wins at Hollywood Park are Charles Whittingham, Mike Mitchell, Ron McAnally, Richard Mandella, John Sadler, Mel Stute, and Bob Baffert.
Monmouth Park in New Jersey will hold a 141-day meet in 2012 while the state reopens the bidding for a long-term lease of the track under a deal that was discussed on Friday between the state’s horsemen and the office of Gov. Chris Christie, officials of the horsemen’s organization said.
Trainer Steve Margolis has put together strong Fair Grounds meets the last two seasons, winning 24 races two years ago to finish sixth in the trainer standings before taking down first money 32 times last year, the third-highest training total at the meet. With 1 win from 7 starters through Thursday, Margolis had yet to hit his full New Orleans stride – understandable, since he was a regular participant at Churchill Downs through the end of the meet there in late November – but that might be coming.
Ultimate Eagle, the winner of the Oak Tree and Hollywood derbys on turf this fall, is likely to stay on that surface for the $150,000 Sir Beaufort Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
For early 2012, though, trainer Mike Pender is planning a surface switch.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Finale’s best chance of winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf probably ended at the post position draw, when he pulled unlucky 13. Finale ultimately broke from post 12, but by that point his fate was pretty much sealed, the resulting eventful trip ending in a disappointing seventh-place finish for a colt who came into the race undefeated in three previous grass outings.
