When Quint’s Brew bounced back to win the $100,000 Not For Love Stakes at Laurel Park on March 7, Ned Allard thought he had earned a rest after firing on a short turnaround. When the Maryland-bred got back to the barn, however, he gave his trainer a different idea.
“I planned on giving him at least a month between races, but he came out of his last race a grizzly bear,” Allard said.
P Val is back.
Patrick Valenzuela, who began riding in 1978 and has won 4,372 races, including the 1989 Kentucky Derby and seven Breeders’ Cup races, but has had repeated disruptions to his career caused by substance abuse problems, has been named to ride three horses at Turf Paradise in Phoenix on Monday.
Valenzuela, 63, has not ridden since December 2016 in Louisiana.
“I’m looking forward to riding at Turf Paradise and hopefully other places as well,” Valenzuela said in an interview on Sunday.
Paradise, an emphatic winner of the Busher Stakes here Feb. 28, and Two Bits, narrow winner of the Ruthless Stakes on Feb. 6, head a group of at least six 3-year-old fillies pointing to the Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle Stakes on April 4.
Provided the Gazelle field stays above five, it will offer its top five finishers qualifying points to the Kentucky Oaks on a 100-50-25-15-10 basis. If only five run in the Gazelle, only 75 percent of the aforementioned points would be awarded.
Napoleon Solo, who was supplemented to and entered in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby, will not run there and instead will be pointed to the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 4 at Aqueduct, owner Al Gold said Monday.
Saturday may be the last big day of the Gulfstream winter season, but trainer Miguel Clement hopes it’s just the starting point for some of his stable’s most accomplished runners.
Grade 1 stakes winners Far Bridge (Pan American) and Carson’s Run (Appleton), as well as the Grade 2 winner Bellezza (Orchid), are all entered to make their seasonal debuts Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
“Saturday’s the day we’re coming out of hibernation,” Clement said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Julien Leparoux, a two-time Eclipse Award winner, will be honored with the 2026 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award next month, Santa Anita announced Monday.
The Woolf Award, which can be won once, honors a rider’s achievements as well as personal character. The award is determined by a vote among riders across the country.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The California-based colts Stark Contrast and Medici, second and third in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby on Saturday at Turfway Park, are candidates for the Grade 1 American Turf Stakes for 3-year-olds on May 2 at Churchill Downs.
The $1 million American Turf is run at 1 1/8 miles on turf, the surface on which Stark Contrast and Medici have thrived.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Gold Phoenix’s ninth graded stakes win in Saturday’s Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes will prompt discussions about a possible trip to Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day.
Last May, Gold Phoenix finished fourth in the Grade 1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill, closing from last of 10 to finish 1 1/4 lengths behind race winner Spirit of St Louis. The same $1.5 million race at 1 1/8 miles on May 2 is a possibility.
Gold Phoenix ended a two-race losing streak in the San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles, closing from seventh of eight.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With bigger fish to fry down the road for Lennilu, including a potential trip to Ascot early this summer, trainer Patrick Biancone was anxious to clear the first hurdle on the comeback trail with his multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old in Sunday’s $125,000 Melody of Colors Stakes.
The talented filly accomplished the mission in popular fashion with a workman-like, three-quarters-of-a-length victory over pacesetting Mystical Belle in the five-furlong turf fixture.
Outfielder is penciled in to join trainer Wesley Ward’s annual raiding party at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting in June in England after a dominant win in the Animal Kingdom for 3-year-old sprinters on Saturday at Turfway.
Ward, who co-owns the colt with Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing and former baseball player Jayson Werth, said he will target the Group 1 Commonwealth for sophomores on June 19.
“He’s really coming into his own,” Ward said. “I think he’s gonna have a big year. Kia, he’s all about Royal Ascot, and I’d like to get Jayson there.”
