INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A fifth-place finish by Champions Gate in the California Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Oct. 29 has changed the gelding’s direction this winter. No more dirt races at Santa Anita.
Instead, trainer Mike Machowsky wants to keep Champions Gate on synthetic tracks or turf courses. The first opportunity is Friday’s sixth race at Hollywood Park, when Champions Gate starts in an optional claimer over six furlongs on turf for 2-year-olds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After running into the graded stakes winner Mucho Macho Man in his last start, Gallant Fields should find the company more to his liking Friday when he attempts to clear the second-level allowance condition at Aqueduct.
Gallant Fields takes on eight rivals in this mile and 70-yard race that also carries an optional claiming tag of $50,000 for which two horses are eligible. Two starts back, Gallant Fields splashed his way to an 8 1/4-length victory in a first-level allowance race run in the slop on closing day at Saratoga.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Buoyed by continued growth from simulcast sites south of the border, the Woodbine Thoroughbred meeting showed a 7.5 percent increase in all-sources handle for the 2011 meeting that ended Sunday.
It marked the third consecutive year of significant gains in handle on its live Thoroughbred product as Woodbine had reported an 8.9 percent increase last year and a 7 percent increase in 2009.
A total of $423,210,680 was wagered on the 165-day meeting, up from $393,506,550 for last year’s 167-day meeting.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Fueled by income derived from the newly opened casino, stakes purses for the 2012 Aqueduct winter/spring meet will increase by 32.4 percent compared with 2011, with significant purse hikes going to races for 3-year-olds of both genders.
Ron Moquett was getting in his vehicle Wednesday morning for the eight-hour jaunt from Hot Springs, Ark., to New Orleans, where on Friday he will saddle Enclosure as one of the top contenders in the featured seventh of 10 races at Fair Grounds.
“I’ll be going down to run a few in New Orleans until Oaklawn Park starts up,” Moquett said by phone, “and then I’ll just mostly stick here through the winter.”
The $1 million Challenge Championships, a traveling program of six divisional stakes for Quarter Horses, will be held at Prairie Meadows in 2012. The championship card will be Oct. 27, the closing night of the track’s meet for Quarter Horses, pending final approval from the Iowa Racing Commission.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Mizdirection, the Del Mar stakes winner, will race primarily in turf sprints during the upcoming Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, after a victory in an optional claimer over six furlongs on turf last Sunday.
Trainer Mike Puype said that Mizdirection will be pointed for the $100,000 Monrovia Stakes over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course on Jan. 2. Owned by a partnership, Mizdirection has won 3 of 7 starts. She won the Sandy Blue Handicap over a mile on turf at Del Mar in the summer, but may be better at shorter distances, the trainer said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Brother Francis, second in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue Stakes but still a maiden, may be supplemented to the $750,000 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 17, trainer Jim Cassidy said on Tuesday.
Brother Francis is winless in two starts, including a second in his debut at Santa Anita on Nov. 5. In the seven-furlong Prevue Stakes, Brother Francis finished a half-length behind So Brilliant, the 7-5 favorite.
Cassidy said that he and owner Norman Cheng have yet to finalize whether Brother Francis will be supplemented to the CashCall Futurity at a cost of $30,000.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Rafael Bejarano resumed working horses on Tuesday after taking Monday off to rest a foot injured during a race on Sunday, according to his agent, Joe Ferrer.
Bejarano took off his final three mounts on Sunday’s program after his mount bumped with a rival in the day’s fifth race, causing the jockey to lose his irons. During the bumping incident, the other rider’s iron struck the top of Bejarano’s foot, causing considerable pain. Bejarano rode one more race before taking off the rest of the day.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The long and short of it is that Pat Kelly sends out 40 percent of the field in Thursday’s $60,000 Soft Morning overnight stakes. Spa City Princess is the 9-5 favorite on the morning line, and Bailzee is the 8-1 outsider in a field of five New York-bred fillies and mares.
A threat of rain and snow showers appears favorable for Spa City Princess, who ran on sealed wet surfaces in her first four starts of the year and picked up stakes wins on the both dirt tracks at Aqueduct.
“She likes the inner track and doesn’t mind the water,” Kelly said.
