OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Dr Disco, who won Sunday’s Vodka Stakes in front-running fashion at Aqueduct, will likely be pointed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes here on Feb. 4, trainer Bruce Brown said.
Brown has wanted to try the New York-bred Dr Disco against open company and had considered the Fall Highweight, but didn’t on Thanksgiving Day over the main track, but didn’t feel his 3-year-old received enough of a weight break.
Dr Disco is 4 for 5 over the inner track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - As was the case with last weekend’s Garland of Roses, it took a supplemental entry to get Saturday’s $100,000 Queens County Stakes to fill. Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. supplemented Ea, a recent winner of a $35,000 claimer, to the Queens County bringing the field size to five.
Drill, winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity in September, but badly beaten in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes in November, may start in the $750,000 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 17.
Trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday that Drill has impressed him with recent workouts, leading to the possibility of a start in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity, which is run over 1 1/16 miles.
The pilot program of the HBO horse racing series “Luck,” which has been filmed to a large extent at Santa Anita in the last year, will be presented on the cable network Sunday.
“Luck” will be presented in an eight-part series that will launch on HBO, beginning in late January. The series was created by writer-producer David Milch, the horse owner whose credits include the popular HBO series “Deadwood” as well as network series “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue.”
Santa Anita officials are hoping the series will prove popular and increase interest in the sport.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Back after a three-day suspension and a trip to Japan, jockey Ramon Dominguez picked up where he left off, riding Day of Destiny – his first mount of the inner-track season – to victory in Wednesday’s second race at Aqueduct.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Weemissfrankie will face the smallest field of her career when she starts as a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $250,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes, the last Grade 1 race of the year for 2-year-old fillies.
The Starlet drew a field of six, including the stakes winners Charm the Maker, who won the Sharp Cat Stakes on Nov. 13; and Killer Graces, who won two sprint stakes earlier this year. The field also includes Self Preservation, who has finished behind Weemissfrankie in three Grade 1 stakes this year; the maiden race winner Lady Pecan; and the maiden Mi Vida.
No trainer has started the 2011-2012 Fair Grounds meet hotter than New Orleans native Al Stall, whose blistering early-season pace already had produced eight winners from 19 runners going into Wednesday’s action. And if things go right for Stall, his fast pace should hold up through Saturday, when his stable is in all kinds of action during the Louisiana Champions Day program.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The handicap division figures to be wide open in 2012, and trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. is hoping to be a major player in that category with a trio of older horses he’s got in training at Gulfstream Park this winter that includes Boys At Tosconova, Trickmeister, and Redeemed, all of whom are nominated to the $60,000 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes on Dec. 17.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla – Trainer Todd Pletcher has won eight straight Gulfstream Park training titles. If anyone is going to stop him from winning a ninth it might be Chad Brown, who will have nearly 90 horses stabled at the Palm Meadows training center this winter.
Brown’s deep arsenal includes the Grade 3 stakes-placed Desert Sage, who figures to stand some beating dropping back against allowance competition for Friday’s $60,000 main event at Gulfstream Park. The headliner is scheduled to be run at 1 1/16 miles over the outer turf course.
Winchell Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen won the richest 2-year-old race in the Mid-South region of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas last month, when Sabercat overhauled the competition in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot.
